Star Wars: The Hyperion Journeys: The Last Battle
by Tenkai Nankobo 101
Summary: Hyperion Algethii has found himself more entrenched with the Sith Remnant than he could possibly imagine and with his grandfather returned from death, things will go from bad to worse unless his Jedi brother Dantius can complete his secret operations for the Republic in time to stop him. The last battle in the war against Vitiate's Sith begins now with Hyperion at its center!
1. Prologue & Chapter One

**Star Wars**

 **The Hyperion Journeys**

 **The Last Battle**

 **By**

 **Christopher Cleveland**

 **Prologue**

Crassus meditated, enjoying his new body and enjoying the powers that Lord Imperius' body allowed him. Never before had he thought it possible to learn how to drain life and Force energy from somebody, much less a planet. But when he used the power to drain Nox of her existence, banishing her soul to the void of oblivion in so doing, he was emboldened. He knew that if he could use her Force energy to buy this body three hundred years, who knew how much time he could buy if he consumed an entire planet. Filled with artifacts, Force-sensitive people, non Force-sensitive souls, life energies, even Nogatan would do just fine especially with its Dark Side connection.

So it was that he contemplated the inner workings of his host body's powers and abilities, deciphering how he may combine them with the ones he brought to the table. He soon discovered a slight nook in the performance of Vitiate's rituals that consumed Nathema and Ziost. For whatever reason, he always needed time to effectively consume a planet when he could've just relied on the power of the artifacts he kept within Nathema in order to accelerate the process. Crassus, under the guise of Lord Imperius, wasn't going to make that mistake nor was he about to let his grandson ruin everything.

In his prime, Hyperion could've made for a great Sith warrior and was making all the right choices. Even when he served General Nobunaga, following Crassus' temporary defeat at the hands of the boy's cousin, Hyperion had been a hell of an adherent to the Dark Side's ways. But ever since accepting the mission that Dantius charged him, and living in exile on Ando Prime, the man had become weak. In fact, Crassus was beginning to wonder if his grandson would become a liability to his plans for the greater galaxy. It would certainly seem that way, given his increasing uncertainty about embracing the heritage that once characterized his youth.

Now, he was armed with the greatest arsenal of any Sith Lord and yet here he was, squandering those talents in remorse for the deeds of his youth. Instead, he should have been wearing his so-called sins like a badge of pride on his chest and relishing the notoriety they gave him rather than lamenting that he had the notoriety at all. Fortunately, Hyperion would have a chance to prove himself once and for all by helping him complete the mission to Nogatan. Once Crassus had consumed the life energies of the planet and its Dark Side energy, he would spend the millennia rebuilding the Sith with some of the best aspects of Algethiius that they may be impregnable against the Republic. He almost lamented the fact that Hyperion was no longer a suitable candidate for transferring his essence, having been a close genetic match of his in his former human body.

But this new body was an improvement in every way from superior physical strength to immensely longer lifespans. The only thing Crassus had to fear now was the failure of the ceremony to consume life on Nogatan. So far as Crassus could tell, the only weakness that there was only one way in which the ceremony could go wrong that Hyperion could be responsible for. If he did it, not even the extra life essence gathered from Lady Nox would help him survive it.

 **Chapter One**

Not long after comming Dantius about the location of Crassus' aspiration to perform the ceremony on Nogatan, Hyperion began working on a way Crassus could be beaten once it began. He figured his best chance would be to wait until his grandfather had initiated the ceremony and entrenched himself into it but had thus far only found one way. If he let his grandfather begin by consuming the artifacts he intended to use in the ceremony, he needed only disrupt his concentration for a mere moment. Once that was done, the power that Crassus had gathered would turn on him, ripping his soul apart and scattering the pieces across oblivion that he may never rise again.

It was the only way to kill him for certain as Crassus would have no time to perform the ritual of essence transfer, had disconnected himself from Hyperion, and his newfound power would be utterly consumed before his soul was torn apart. His body would be reduced to ash along with the robes, leaving only his lightsaber to tell the story of his sad attempt to cheat death forevermore if Hyperion succeeded. The only trouble Hyperion had was finding anything about the potential backlash the ceremony may hold if it was somehow botched. Would the tearing also pulling apart anyone in close proximity to Crassus when the ceremony was botched.

If so, how much time did Hyperion have to vacate the chamber of Crassus' choice before it consumed him as well. These were the kinds of practical questions that Hyperion wished he could ask his brother, given that the Jedi would possess the story about how Lord Nihilus was killed and what had happened when his power burst outward. Had the Lord of Hunger tried to consume his murderers when he knew he was going to die and if so, how much had he taken out of Meetra Surik and her companions before that happened? This was the moment when he was willing to admit that his brother had been the better academian between the two of them and Menelaus had been showing he could be even better than that. The boy had been the smarter brain between the two of them and Hyperion didn't realize how much he missed him until he thought about his time with him on Ando Prime.

Crassus liked to think of these times as weakness but protecting Menelaus had been a source of strength for Hyperion. It was the case when they fought the Brothers Bane of Dromund Kaas, it had been the case when Hyperion came to rescue him from Clyde Rev, and when he fought and defeated Seth. Thinking of that made Hyperion realize that there was ample reason that Morgana had relied on her love of her sibling to fuel her revenge against Hyperion, fuel the travel and resources she had devoted to trying to destroy him. Granted, her vengeance had cost the Sith dearly where Hyperion's charge had set him free from the guilt of his youth but he was surprised to find himself sympathizing with her.

She had been, after all, Patricia's protector when their parents weren't around and likened herself to being a third parent despite the two of them being twin sisters. But he soon lamented thinking about Morgana when, as he was looking over the books he had procured about Sith ceremonies, a vision was produced across his psyche from the Force itself. In the vision, he was walking down a hallway that resembled the throne room of his homeworld of Algethiius but it was torn down by the ravages of war. More, Hyperion's parents, brother, adopted son, and even his old associates lied dead including the sons of Verrin that he had trained to be Emperor's Hands. Jadus was amongst the company as was the entire rest of the Dark Council besides Morgana who was nowhere to be found.

Hyperion kept walking down the hallway to the throne and when he arrived, he decided to take a seat where he knew his grandfather had once sat down when he ruled Algethiius. Fires were burning uncontrollably around the bodies and soldiers of numerous banners lied down beside the bodies that he had already seen on the way over to the throne room chair. As he sat down, he suddenly felt the heat of a lightsaber slice through his back, burn through his body, and poke out his chest to reveal a crimson blade. While the life left his vision's ethereal shell, he heard what sounded like the laughter of the woman the Empire had known as Darth Minshuto before Hyperion killed her. "Mo... Morgana," Hyperion whispered in a croaking voice before the vision ended, not revealing whether or not he would've died.

His return to consciousness saw him on the floor, bathed in sweat and the books strewn about the table he had been using for research. "What... what the hell happened there?" he asked himself, huffing shallow breaths to recover from what he'd seen. He knew he'd had a vision but he couldn't recognize what it meant for himself, no idea how Morgana factored into his life now that she was dead. Then again, Patricia had set in a chain of events that led to "Lady Minshuto" nearly destroying the remnants of the Sith Empire when she committed suicide, following Hyperion's rape of her. So he couldn't dismiss the possibility that somehow, Morgana's death had set in motion a chain of events that would likely be the most significant in Hyperion's long life.

He put the books away then decided that when it was time to make his move against Cronus, he would outline a strategy based on the information. Meantime, he let the librarians take the books so that they could be packed for the trip to the final destination of the remaining Sith forces. For Hyperion already knew that once Crassus had consumed the planet of Nogatan, he had another destination on which he intended to rebuild the Sith until they could be invincible against further incursions with the Republic. Time was of the essence and Dantius was going to have to destroy as much of the Sith as he possibly could, however he could when he arrived. Which gave Hyperion an idea, something he traditionally wouldn't suggest of Dantius for the simple reason that it would be criminal under normal circumstances.

Coding the signal so that the techs couldn't read it, he sent a one-way transmission to Dantius. "If you know any paramilitary forces, hire them out and have them join the fleet. Offer to set them up for life if they survive the conflict but make sure they understand they'll be allowed to use any means necessary to stop the Sith, provided the task is completed. I doubt you'll be allowed enough Republic forces to do the job with ease if you want to keep this expedition a secret," he said. For all their sakes, he hoped the comm reached Dantius before the Sith took off for Nogatan or else things were going to get difficult, if not impossible.


	2. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two**

Dantius had his forces of eighty thousand ready, fully knowing his soldiers might be outnumbered two or three to one for the sake of the confidentiality of the Sentience. That was when his brother delivered to him a coded transmission that helped him realize the answer to his problem that he should've seen before. Paramilitaries, of course! And I know a few whose commanders owe me favors from when we fought against the Eternal Alliance! Dantius thought to himself silently. And even better than knowing a few paramilitaries that owed him favors, their numbers would swell the ranks of his expedition without attracting scrutiny from the Senate, especially if he payrolled the mercenaries out of his own wealth.

His forces would still be outnumbered but he wouldn't have to disperse them as thinly as he feared he'd have to. So he wrung up the leaders of those paramilitaries, briefing them on the strategy at Korriban before taking them to Dathomir first. Among the ones who answered Dantius' calls, the largest were the Silver Hands and the Space Hawks. The former was deadliest on land battles, usually impeccable in not only wiping the floor with their enemies but also doing so with the most minimal of casualties. In contrast, the latter worked best in the depths of space, generally looting pirate ships and giving the larger share to the less fortunate, keeping only enough to keep their operations afloat.

By promising that the survivors could take whatever they could legally sell in addition to a down payment for their troubles, in addition to calling their favors paid, Dantius knew he had them. The lieutenant of the Silver Hands, known as Rama to the Republic, shook Dantius by the hand and agreed to join Ashlynn in the frontal assault on the Sith Temple on Dathomir. Meanwhile, Inoy would lead the aquatic force across the lake and onto the flank of the temple in order to ensure that none who were inside would escape. Meanwhile, the Space Hawks would lead the space assault on Balmorra whilst Dantius took land forces with him to end the Sith presence there.

It was both brilliant and classic Republic tactics, not to mention it would be brutal once the paramilitaries were turned loose on the promise of keeping what bounty they found. In addition, their lieutenants were going to be set up for long enough that they'd be too old and tired to care about working as paramilitary personnel when their funds ran out. That was only assuming they didn't do as Dantius suspected they'd do and get themselves in some kind of brawl that they might die warriors' deaths. There was also the distinct possibility that they'd invest their funds into the right stocks and become millionaires, ensuring their money never ran out for as long as they lived.

Even with those possibilities noted, Dantius found a part of himself hoping he wouldn't have to pay a single soldier, not with a favor being called in and all that. With Ashlynn, Inoy, and Jace by his side, there was now only one thing left to do and that was launch the attack on Dathomir. Force willing, Dathomir would be conquered before the Sith even knew what had hit them and so it was that Dantius first ordered his standard fleets into battle, preferring to reserve the Space Hawks for the Balmorra run. Thus, the final battle of Dathomir and the Second Galactic War began with him at the lead.

 **"Bide your time and** pounce when you know you cannot fail." These were the words that Morgana had passed onto her niece Morgause, after her failure to bring in Hyperion with the aid of Seth al Ugolio and the rogue Jedi. But now with her aunt dead, her mercenaries dispersed, and her resources (few as they were now) passed onto Morgause, she began to wonder. Had she had an opportunity that was then squandered by letting her aunt take over operations? If so, would she have to make her own opportunity if she wanted revenge against Hyperion for the insult paid her by Patricia's rape and Morgana's death.

She somehow felt she shouldn't have listened to her aunt when Morgana told her to retreat and wait while Morgana attempted to take revenge for herself. Now that her aunt was dead and she had been integrated into the Sith as one of Morgana's earliest privileges as a member of the Dark Council, she knew her own opportunity had to come soon. With the Sith on the move, Morgause knew she wouldn't have a chance to take on Hyperion once the plans of the new Emperor were fulfilled. She debated killing him in his sleep but immediately thought better of it, Hyperion deserved death but didn't deserve the cowardice of not facing his killer.

Unfortunately for her, it was as if thinking about killing Hyperion had caused unwanted attention to turn her way. Because the Emperor called for her after she began planning to kill Hyperion, likely to assign her work in rebuilding the Empire. Arriving to his chamber, she found herself standing before an imposing figure that stood at odds with what she had seen with the natives of Utapau in the past. The one they called Darth Imperius was tall as was customary of Pau'ans but he was also filled out and built sturdily enough to punch through durasteel. Bowing before him, she faced her head to the floor and politely asked him what was his bidding in the formality befitting Sith.

"Lady Morgause, I understand that Darth Minshuto was your biological aunt. I also understand that you share her desire for vengeance against the Emperor's Wrath. Am I correct in what my information has told me?" asked the Emperor. He gazed on her with what felt like a sight capable of seeing through her and into her soul even if her eyes were not facing him as subservience demanded. Therefore, she didn't even bother trying to lie to him about her enmity against the one they called the Emperor's Wrath.

"I indeed share my aunt's grudge against Hyperion. It is my desire that his blood grace my blade before the end of my life," Morgause confessed.

"Then answer a question for me, if you would. Morgana is Patricia's sister, Patricia was raped by Hyperion and that reluctant union produced only one child before her death. Unless the two of them had another sibling, have you ever thought to who your father might be?" Imperius explained. Morgause realized the accusation he was making, realized the accuracy in what he said about what Hyperion had done to Patricia where Morgana had never told Morgause that Hyperion's union with Patricia had produced a child. Her breathing became heavy from the epiphany that her mind produced despite her trepidation at the implications of Imperius' remarks.

"Your change of emotion is answer enough, woman. Morgana never told you that Hyperion's rape produced anything yet you never thought to ask why you were attuned to the Force. An unquestioning Sith is a stupid Sith and with enough time, a stupid Sith is a dead Sith, Morgause. Fortunately for you, Morgause, there is a way you and your aunt can still fight together to destroy Hyperion," Imperius told her.

"With due respect my lord, how is that possible when she was killed by Hyperion in their last battle?" Morgause inquired.

"You learn quickly. Normally you would be correct to inquire in such a fashion but I am willing to let you in on a secret. The body you see before you is merely host to a century and a half old spirit usually known as Lord Crassus. Before I came to possess Lord Imperius, I was a disembodied that nurtured its power within the psyche of Hyperion himself after a botched attempt to perform essence transfer on his cousin. Shortly before I was given this host by Hyperion himself, we fought and destroyed Morgana together, allowing me the chance to absorb her spirit into Hyperion's being when he permitted me to use my power to kill her," Imperius explained.

Morgause didn't expect Imperius to come clean with the part he played in Morgana's death. But the fact that the spirit Imperius hosted had helped kill Morgana, only to absorb her spirit into Hyperion's body meant that there was indeed a way after all. "How can I call upon her to help me if I fought Hyperion?" Morgause inquired.

"Firstly, you will need a lightsaber for such a confrontation in addition to the skill to wield one," Imperius began.

"I know the seven forms of lightsaber combat and can effectively wield Soresu, Makashi, and Niman. With some expertise, I can also wield Ataru and Juyo, I simply would need to acquisition a blade. I hear Hyperion has a spare he could lend me if I got close enough to him," Morgause replied.

"Then you are already halfway there. Whilst Morgana and I existed within the innermost sanctum of Hyperion's mind, she and I worked on a way that a blood relative of hers could summon her to take possession of his body if called. The only way we could find was one that requires a chant you will need time to recite and a snap of the fingers upon the chant's completion. Would you like to learn the words you need to speak when you have opened yourself up to the Force in Hyperion's presence?" Imperius asked. Morgause looked up at her Emperor and grinned from end to end, more than enough answer for the man who utilized the name Imperius despite his birth name of Crassus.

"Then I will teach you how to open yourself to your aunt's presence within Hyperion's subconscious and when to recite the chant. You will need if you wish to exact your revenge against Hyperion as well as soldiers willing to help you," Imperius told her. And with that, young Morgause's personal path to revenge began with the aid of the Sith Emperor himself.


	3. Chapter Three

**Chapter Three**

When Morgause left, having learned how and when to call upon her aunt to help her in their revenge bid against Hyperion, Crassus turned to his other designs. The journey for Nogatan was still yet to begin because he hadn't yet calculated a destination the Sith could turn to once the ceremony was completed. It was on thinking about this that he also realized that the if he indeed went through with the ritual, he might be the only Sith left standing unless he sent a division to settle on a distant planet before Crassus consumed Nogatan. That was when he realized that he stood to gain a lot more than he originally anticipated in the duel between Morgause and Hyperion.

For as long as he had been alive, he had prided himself on satisfying a number of goals with as few moves toward them as possible. In fact, he felt that the greatest Sith owed their success to fulfilling a number of goals with one set of movements for political and Force power. It was how Lord Malgus had done, how Darth Vitiate had done it when he consumed Nathema, and how the most revered Sith had usually tended to rule through fear, power, and cunning. So it was in this case when he realized that he had something indeed to gain from the outcome of Morgause's attempt on Hyperion's life.

If Hyperion succeeded in destroying her, even with Morgana called upon to help her, he would prove he had been restored to the Sith fold. Should Hyperion lose, Morgause would prove herself worthy of aiding Crassus in the restoration of the Empire, following the ritual's performance. But if Hyperion should win, only to spare Morgause and not even think to destroy her, then he would prove himself even worse than if he had lost fairly to her in a joust. Morgause would win the task of helping him begin the restoration of the Empire, based on the plans Crassus had already concocted for the aftermath of the ceremony, by mere default. Either way, he would have the worthiest Sith up to the task of helping him rebuild the Sith upon the completion of the duel and the ritual on Nogatan.

On the one hand, Hyperion had years of experience as a Sith Warrior, had successfully trained Verrin's sons to become powerful Sith worthy of respect in the Empire. He was skilled in all seven of the traditional forms of lightsaber combat in addition to Jar'Kai and the arsenal of weapons not traditionally associated with bearers of the Force. But on the other, Morgause had guile, cunning, subtlety, was also trained in the lightsaber forms, the potential for training as a Sith enchantress, and was young enough to live to the potential that her expertise implied. More, Morgause was hungry for the power of the Dark Side and vengeful for the wrongs performed upon her mother and her family by her father and his. In contrast, Hyperion was bitter and regretful of the consequences of his actions whilst under the influence of the Dark Side.

By having them fight to destroy each other, no matter the outcome, Crassus would know whose loyalty he could count on. And, despite the Republic sure to close in on his only two worlds soon enough, he had no choice but to wait until Morgause had made her move before he could initiate the plans that would need initiation. Plans that, despite his confidence in the ceremony, had been designed so that they could be executed even in the unlikely event that he failed to complete the ritual and was obliterated by the backlash. He knew that the Sith would need centralized leadership, regardless of the outcome of the ceremony, and he realized one other thing about Morgause. If Morgause was permitted to survive by Hyperion and also permitted to help him with his plans, she had the education and credentials to be an effective politician.

Her cunning, her aunt's wealth, and the family connections meant that she could effectively govern during the early stages of recovery. Not to mention, the Sith would be too desolated by the war and violence to even think about coups whether or not Crassus succeeded in the ritual. Therefore, she could convince the survivors that her appointment of an heir was the most effective choice and that the Sith would be led on the right path if her heir's appointment came to pass. It was a pity that Lord Scourge was considered a traitor who would be destroyed if he were ever seen upon Sith property again or else Crassus would've asked him to lead the Sith back to a time of purity.

The only way that Scourge could be allowed to return to the Empire for certain was if he challenged Morgause for the position and attained it in fair combat, something that his birth as a Pureblood permitted him. That was an idea came to him, one that would ensure the Sith had the best leadership possible in addition to the assurance of an immortal watching over them in the early stages of their recovery. More, Scourge was nowhere near the power levels of Vitiate which meant that he might be immortal but he was far from invulnerable compared to the one the Zakuulans had called Valkorion. Thus, Crassus put out an anonymous comm, asking that Lord Scourge meet with Darth Imperius within three days time on the planet Korriban if he was still alive. He was told that a proposition would be made that Scourge would be interested in hearing, given that he was no lover of the Republic despite his allegiance to it.

No matter what happened, Crassus wanted to ensure that even if he were to somehow fail in the ritual, the Sith would have the strongest leader possible. It would be the only way for sure that the Sith could hope to heal to a point of prowess where the Republic would not be able to overcome them. Most important, he would come prepared with the plans with which he intended to rebuild the Sith most especially with the ritual ensuring his immortality and greater power. Unlike Vitiate, Crassus would know that there were more important enemies and obstacles to conquer during the next little while. Obstacles that would ensure that the Republic was too weak to stop the Sith upon their return from the fringes of Known Space.

He was hoping to impress Lord Scourge into accepting that the Sith needed an experienced leader to help rebuild the Empire. Most of all, he would need to convince Scourge to watch the inevitable battle at Nogatan unfold and act only in accordance with the outcome of the battle and nothing more. Like Crassus, Scourge was a patient man and was likely biding his time for the perfect chance to take back the Empire for himself now that Vitiate was dead. And despite his own desire to hold onto power, Crassus had to admit that he had to dangle that chance in front of Scourge in order to convince him to help. It was a game of chess that Crassus intended to win, even if he was destined to die in the battle at Nogatan, trying to complete the ritual.


	4. Chapter Four

**Chapter Four**

Hyperion was contemplating the visions he'd seen of Morgana stabbing him in the back amidst the carnage of Algethiius when he heard the first reports. Dathomir was being attacked by the combination of Republic and unknown paramilitary forces that conspired to destroy Sith holdings on the planet. He chuckled when he realized that his brother had followed his advice and gotten paramilitaries involved. So far as the description of the non Republic forces were concerned, Hyperion guessed that Dantius had somehow recruited the Space Hawks and the Silver Hands, especially in the images of silver-armored troops arriving to Dathomir's surface. Hyperion knew the time had come to start the departure for Nogatan but also knew that Crassus wasn't quite ready to make that move just yet.

No, he still had other plans to complete here on Balmorra before he could hope to initiate a move to Nogatan and the ceremony from there. And amongst those plans, it would seem, was to test Hyperion's loyalties by sending one of the last units of the Imperial Guard upon him. Hyperion countered them with his nets, slugthrowers, spear, whip, grenades, and shurikens before finishing the last one with ease via his ax and shield. The Imperial Guards were powerful but they had failed to defeat the likes of mercenaries such as the Devils of Mustafar and now proved disadvantaged against Hyperion even now. But Hyperion realized that they were just the warmup, especially once the lightsaber he'd stolen from the last of the Brothers Bane was levitated from his chest strap by a powerful tug from the Force.

Activated by a woman he had never seen before, he realized something about her that chilled him to the bone. She bore a striking resemblance to Morgana as she must've looked when she was younger only Hyperion knew for a fact that Morgana had no children, which left only one possibility. "Hello Daddy," she said a moment later before adding, "The name's Morgause, my aunt chose it when I was born." Hyperion didn't even bother trying to recover his ax or reach his lightsaber, instead he raised his hands in a gesture of peace.

"So, Morgana told you the truth. You have grown into a charming, lovely, and powerful woman," Hyperion said, not even trying to deny that he recognized his daughter before him.

"No thanks to you except for the rage your deed against my mother that burned within me as a child! That burns now hotter with the death of my aunt, the one woman who found my potential and trained me to avenge my mother if she failed," Morgause told him. Hyperion let a tear roll down his eye, the very embodiment of the vengeance he sowed into Patricia's family having finally blossomed into this woman before him.

"Before she died, did Morgana tell you what happened to your grandparents? Did she tell you what my brother did to me in the wake of your mother's suicide?" Hyperion inquired. Morgause let out a cruel laugh before replying as he suspected she would if he understood Morgana's personality correctly.

"Huh, I need not know those things to desire revenge against you. It was you who wronged my mother, not my grandparents! And it is you who has still to suffer yet, not your brother in his own drive for revenge against you!" Morgause explained. Hyperion unclipped his remaining lightsaber and threw it to the side, also unclipping his shield while his daughter looked on puzzled. Then Hyperion fell to his knees in front of his daughter, looking her straight in her eyes as he explained what he was doing.

"You're right, Morgause. I have not yet begun to pay penance for the sins of my youth, no apology will ever take back how you were brought into this galaxy, and no amount of explanation could ever justify the pain I caused your mother's family. So if you want to kill me, if seeing me dead will make you whole, I won't stop you. The gifts of the Dark Side come at a price most terrible to one's soul and if you believe you must be the arbiter of the price I must pay then I will gladly prostrate myself to your whim," Hyperion told her. Morgause moved in close raising the yellow blade of her new lightsaber to strike the fatal blow that would end her father's life as soon as she brought it down.

Hyperion looked up to his daughter's eyes as she prepared to strike him down, prepared to exact revenge for Morgana, Patricia, and the Brillante family. He was neither afraid nor proud of what he had done, neither haughty nor embarrassed, simply tired of running away, tired of letting his guilt wrack him without end in sight. The Sith Lord didn't speak as there was no need, not while he was baring his neck to the child he'd forcibly conceived with Patricia, many years before. But Morgause was unable to do it, lowering and deactivating her blade as she broke down into tears. Hyperion breathed a silent sigh of relief then slowly approached her, rising to a crouch as he did so.

"It isn't so easy to take a life when you have to think about it, is it? So much easier to let impulse override your senses until after the fact, isn't it? This is the failing of the Dark Side, Morgause, the reason for my failure to win Patricia's heart and gain her consent before we had you. Listen close to my story and learn why you were right to forswear your revenge in sparing my life. I was born to a Crown Prince on a distant planet called Algethiius, I made a deal with my Sith Lord grandfather that cost me my soul," Hyperion began.

"The Emperor mentioned something along those lines when he sent me to destroy you. He said he trained you as the human Crassus when you were a child, taught you the ways of the Sith," Morgause said when she was a little more coherent. Hyperion nodded and locked arms with her, embracing her as a father might embrace a child he was trying to comfort. So that she couldn't kill him in the embrace, he levitated the lightsaber she'd stolen away from either of them. When he knew she wouldn't be reaching out to him with the Force in order to kill him, he continued with his story from her comment.

"Through him, I learned how to kill many who were deserving but usually many more who were not. I helped my grandfather kill my mother and father, helped him imprison my brother in a coma for seven years, and helped him eliminate political enemies who stood in his way. You lose yourself to the Dark Side without an anchor to keep yourself centered against the thirst for blood the Dark Side will inevitably create within you," Hyperion told her. Morgause nodded, a movement Hyperion felt on his shoulder the way he sometimes felt it from Menelaus when he was a child.

"Tell me," she started, "what happened to my grandparents? What did your brother do to you when my mother died?" Hyperion knew this was a question that he was supposed to hear her ask on the onset of their meeting.

"My brother beat the poodoo out of me when I was drunk then sent me off to a correctional asylum in Teth. I was tortured by the guards, inmates attempted to rape and kill me, and I was put in solitary confinement for killing four inmates and permanently injuring seven more. As for your grandparents, Morgana had been training under the influence of a Sith Lord named Darth Inferis. As one of her last tests before she could claim the mantle of Sith Master from him, she was asked to kill your grandparents and take you under her wing as her next apprentice. When she succeeded in all of that, she betrayed and destroyed her master, arranging an accident for her parents that appeared like a landspeeder crash but was truthfully an assassination," Hyperion said stoically.

Morgause looked at him with galvanized eyes when she recoiled from his arms and he only nodded. "That all happened and I bet you anything that Morgana would be willing to confess that if you questioned her about them. But now that she is dead, the only guarantee you have that she'd have confessed is if she left recordings in her strongholds. Now, why don't we go and take the fight to our real enemy together as father and daughter," Hyperion told her.

She smiled, recovering the lightsaber that she had taken from Hyperion while Hyperion recovered the one he would've used against her if they had dueled. He also recovered his spear and his ax from the Guards he killed in addition to the shield that he had also upholstered when he decided he wanted to persuade his daughter from the Dark path. When the duo arrived at the Emperor's quarters, Hyperion dispatched the guards that stood at the door, first spearing one with a Force-imbued throw and then chopping the other to pieces with the ax. Leaving the larger blade of the ax embedded in the head of his last victim, he opened the door and together, they entered for the fight of their lives.

Crassus, in the form of the Pau'an Sith Lord Darth Imperius, turned in that moment to face the adversaries before him. "I did not expect this at all. Still, I should have realized that you would lack the stomach to eliminate your father, Morgause. You spoke greatly of wanting vengeance but seldom do those who boast that they are fighters turn out to be such themselves," Crassus told them.

"She has seen the depths of your evil for what it is, grandfather. Together, the two of us are powerful enough to destroy you and put the Empire on the right path!" Hyperion snapped at him.

"If she has truly been turned against me by your grace, Hyperion, then she will die with you as well. And her death will be on you as are the deaths of those you killed in your service to me when you were her age," Crassus declared emotionlessly. It was then that all three ignited lightsabers and the duel between them began for supremacy of the Sith Empire Remnant.


	5. Chapter Five

**Chapter Five**

Thanks to Morgause learning none of Hyperion's skills and vice versa, both managed to surprise each other with their fluidity, dexterity, and aggression against Lord Crassus. But Crassus soon proved that he found a viable body to prove their superiors in saber combat and Force powers, at least if they had fought him alone. That noted, they noticed that Crassus was mostly on the defensive side of lightsaber combat and seemed not to be channeling his Force powers into an attack. "From beyond life, at the edge of oblivion, I call to a spirit of vengeance to rise forth and take revenge against the one who destroyed it. Morgana L'étoile Brilliante, I call to you to rise within Hyperion and claim both his body and mind for your own," Crassus said, a black and silver fire forming on his left hand as he raised it up and pointed the knuckles in Hyperion's direction.

In that moment, Hyperion remembered he still had the wrist blade that he could shoot from his gauntlet and when he did, he released it within moments of Crassus snapping his fingers. Just as the black pulse exploded and the field enveloped Hyperion, the blade embedded itself into Crassus with a sound of torn cloth and cut flesh, the projectile sawing its way through bone. Hyperion fell over once the pulse touched him and Morgause looked on with shock at the very idea her father could be so easily brought down.

"What did you do to him?" Morgause demanded.

"Exactly as I said you'd be capable of doing if you had exercised the right. I called forth Morgana from beyond oblivion to take over Hyperion's body and mind in a final effort for revenge. Had you had the spine for it, you would've been able to call upon it then finish him off if he triumphed over her. But now, its only use to me is in ending this fight quickly to pursue more important goals," Crassus told her.

"I won't fall that easily," Morgause hissed.

"No, you are your father's daughter. You fall won't be easy or painless for that matter. But I have greater goals to fulfill than destroying you at the moment so for now, I'll postpone this engagement," Crassus told her. Morgause replied with a bout of Force Lightning so powerful it should not have come from someone as young as her, let alone from each hand. Even with this noted, Crassus easily absorbed it with one hand and in the midst of doing so, Morgause picked up her father's lightsaber to fight with beside the one she took from him already. As she ignited both blades, Crassus shot the lightning back at her from the same hand, marching backward toward his shuttle as she deflected her own bolts with the lightsabers.

By the time she was able to fight against, Crassus had reached the shuttle and spoke before boarding. "You have a choice, Morgause. Stay by your father and kill Morgana if she wins or pursue me and risk losing your father to her or to someone coming from among the Imperial Guards. Your choice woman," he said. Morgause lowered her lightsabers in hesitation, realizing that he had backed her into a corner even though he was the one retreating.

Reluctantly, she chose to stay with her father even though part of her knew he would want her to keep the fight going if he failed. But after all these years of searching for him, initially for revenge along with Morgana, and now she wasn't about to let him out her sights. So she helped carry him back to his quarters where he lied in a comatose state, most likely battling Morgana within an ethereal realm beyond his comprehension. She also made sure that Crassus hadn't yet done anything that would jeopardize their ability to get close to him once again.

So far, he hadn't issued any orders for their arrests or anything similar, likely because the Empire wasn't in the kind of position where arresting such powerful individuals as them could be justified. Which left just one more thing for her to worry about and that was what the hell could Crassus have deemed so important that he left the fight when he vowed he would kill Morgause and Hyperion if they fought against him? What could consume his focus so much that he would briefly demonstrate his power against the two younger bearers of the Dark Side and then depart for Force knew where? And what would happen if Morgana's spirit won over Hyperion's iron will, forcing Morgause to potentially turn against her aunt and kill her for good? Would she be up to the task or would she falter like she did when she had Hyperion at her mercy in finally attempting to take _his_ life?

"I should never have trained with my aunt," Morgause said. Hyperion didn't respond as she expected but still, she continued as if he would answer. "I should've run away from her when I had the chance and damn the consequences if I got assigned to a foster home, somewhere on the fringes of Known Space! I wish I never learned what happened to my mother or agreed to train with her! But I need you, Dad, don't leave me," Morgause begged.

She knew Hyperion probably couldn't hear her but she didn't care, not when she was begging her father to persevere and defeat her vengeful aunt. Little did she realize there was a part of him that heard everything she said and grew stronger from what she said to him. Even more incredible than that, that same part of him relied on her love and her Force power to take strength. It was all he could do, having been absent from his daughter's life for so many years only to now fall into a coma.

Meanwhile, she kept watch over the comm channels, making sure that Crassus had not yet deemed them traitors or used any non-restricted channels for communication. She also noticed that the armies of the Sith were on the move now that Dathomir was under attack especially. Of late, the Republic had managed to breach the space defenses of Dathomir and send in a force of mercenaries down to the surface for their part in attacking the land forces on the planet's red surface. Little did she know that her father was the reason they had even begun the attack, the reason they knew to start it when they did, and the reason the Sith were damaged at all.

And little did she realize that even if Morgana had triumphed over Hyperion in the battle of wills, there wouldn't be much left for them. In truth, there wouldn't be much future left for the Sith now that Hyperion's mission, from Dantius' viewpoint, was essentially completed with the start of the assault on Dathomir and the war that was to come.


	6. Chapter Six

**Chapter Six**

Hyperion found himself in blackness when he "awoke" in his ethereal subconscious. His skin was not pitch black like his surrounding but he couldn't see anything, not even the outlines of objects. That was when he heard the familiar laugh of Morgana, mocking him for what Crassus had pulled off on him. "Nothing but darkness lies ahead for you, Hyperion Algethii," snapped Morgana. There was a strange echo in her voice as she spoke which was where Hyperion figured out he was in some kind of ethereal fight for dominance of his mind.

Knowing there was no other way to win the fight by standing still, he proceeded forward as best he could, even knowing that danger lied ahead. As he proceed forth, the outline of his ethereal shell changed from having a tattered loincloth he recognized from his youth as a gladiator, to the gauntlet he was most famous for carrying into those bygone battles. Since the fight ahead would take place in his mind, he conjured the wrist blade he usually collapsed into the gauntlet when he wasn't fighting and produced when he had a battle ahead that he had to win. As he kept walking forward, parts of the armor he presently wore began to take shape on his body along with the helmet he had used when he attacked Ashlynn's family on Lorrd. This set full, the only thing he was missing was a lightsaber to wield in battle against Morgana but even this was soon solved for him despite his chagrin at the choice of weaponry.

"Search your memory, Hyperion," Morgana began "did you not wield this lightsaber around the time you ravaged my sister? Did you not use the gauntlet you now possess to eliminate her suitors, hoping that she would give herself to you when she saw the dead pile up? What about the helmet of your battle against Ashlynn Thorin's family in order to spite your brother, hoping to rob him of all love and joy in his life that he may be as miserable as you?"

He knew what she was trying to do with these words, knew she was trying to make him give up his body to her by reminding him of the atrocity of his past. But he kept marching on, knowing that if he could just make Morgana manifest and defeat her in single combat, he would win back his body. That was when light began to illuminate his way, showing him the path to the destined battle with Morgana and his freedom from this havoc upon his psyche. He first saw a vestige of the past that glew red as the blade he'd wielded when he was a young man but, aside from a three-dimensional outline, had nothing that stood out until Hyperion heard them speak. Suspicious, he stopped and watched as the female figure carried something that he could only recognize as a child of about five years of age.

"Hurry, get our children inside the ship! Quickly, before father finds us!" begged the woman. The man turned Hyperion's way and called to him, beckoning his child to join him in the shuttle with his wife and youngest son, Dantius. Hyperion marched forth but when he had taken no more than three steps, the man's expression turned from beckoning to one of abject horror and Hyperion remembered why. Hyperion watched his father shake his head, denying what the child had done even as he saw it done before his eyes.

"Hyperion, what have you done?" his mother demanded. Emerging in front of him was the towering figure that Crassus had represented in Hyperion's youth. At one point eighty-two meters, Crassus had been an imposing figure in his last human form even when Hyperion was fully grown. But as his ethereal shell assumed the physicality of his eight year old form, Crassus became the Titan the boy had remembered.

He watched all over again as his father bravely stood his ground against Crassus and attempted to kill him to no perceivable avail. Crassus was simply to quick and too strong for his son and Hyperion watched all over again as Crassus grabbed him by both hands so hard, he dropped his blade. Then he watched again as Crassus raised the Crown Prince up by his wrists and disemboweled him, cutting up to his chest cavity before deactivating his blade and tossing the corpse aside without a thought to pity or remorse. Hyperion knew what was coming next even as his head threatened to split apart from the pain of his past rising up before him as if to squeeze out every last cell of his physical brain and burn it to nothingness. But he powered through this pain and when he did, he was not only back to his adult form but he was also being confronted by Crassus.

"The Dark Side consumes everything that it lays touch to. Those who wield it merely buy themselves time from being consumed by their own possession of its power. But you had a perfectly wonderful chance to live your years as a god and you squandered it to your guilt over what you did in the name of the Dark Side. Confront these demons, whatever you may think they are, and lay them to rest if you are to have any hope of becoming a powerful Force-sensitive. Embrace your darkness, admit to your deeds, and you will know the stability of mind that elude even the Grandmasters of the Jedi Order," Crassus told him.

Hyperion looked on the shape of Crassus, the lightsaber in his hand and still ignited as if he hadn't yet spilled the blood of his own children with it. Still, the younger man knew exactly what he needed to do, knew exactly what he had to say in that moment to make that image disappear. "Your training could not break me, the hands of death could not touch me even as there were plenty of ways I should've been dead, and Morgana has thus far failed to destroy me. You will be no different, captive to the past as you are!" Hyperion snapped back at him.

"You will learn to fear me, boy, or you will die," Crassus said, raising his lightsaber as if to perform a backhand swiping arc.

"I already did learn to fear you when I was your slave just as the dog learns to fear reparation from its master for misbehavior and misconduct. You already scared me witless as a child but now, you are no longer existent. My cousin beat you and your soul cowered within my mind until you learned of his death and that of many of the colleagues who joined him in taking you down!" Hyperion said, daring the phantom to strike him down. When the specter of his grandfather finally tried, Hyperion braced himself for it and was pleased to see the image dissipate into a ball of white fire before the lightsaber blade could make contact with him. His mission here completed, he followed the fireball to where it led, onward in his fight against Morgana and her attempts to possess his body, mind, and soul for her own nefarious resurrection.


	7. Chapter Seven

**Chapter Seven**

When the white fireball stopped, Hyperion found himself realizing something about how to reach Morgana and how to beat her when he did. Each time he was confronted with one of his more wicked sins of youth, he would have to witness it and atone for it somehow. He had already demonstrated this by admitting that Crassus had scared him as a child in the first test he'd seen as well as the pain he experienced in watching his parents die again. Now, he found himself suspicious that because Morgana was influencing what he saw in this realm somehow, she would be saving Patricia's torture and rape for last in the hopes of utterly breaking him long before he saw it again. So when he was next confronted by some of the victims he destroyed in his gladiatorial days, he wasn't too shocked as to the identities.

Where some of the warriors had marched straight into their deaths without another thought, Hyperion remembered these ones. One was an undernourished man who was crawling away from Hyperion on his back, desperately holding his intestines together. "Please, don't kill me. Show mercy!" begged the starved novice. Hyperion heard the sharpening of a blade he knew to be the unfolding of his old gauntlet's wrist blade, preparing to deliver the fatal blow.

"You realize that begging me to kill you and begging you to show mercy are contradictions, do you not?" asked a more youthful Hyperion. The older man saw himself looming over his prey like a panther waiting for a wounded herd animal to die. And he also knew what was next, having lived the life the spectre before him played out. The novice begged for his life, screaming until his killer sliced his Adam's apple clean from his throat, simultaneously constricting air flow down the windpipe and severing the vocal cords with the blow. His prey died in agonized silence, choking on the blood that also gushed forth from his neck wound until his spasms ceased and the soul departed his eyes, his life ending there and then.

Then the spectre of Hyperion's youth in the gladiator rings raised his arms in triumph to the jubilation of an audience that had long since faded, like dust on the wind, from memory. It was when the jubilation died that the spectre saw the real Hyperion and looked on him with disgust. "Look at you," it said in Morgana's voice, "in your heyday, you were a killer. You showed no qualms about taking what you wanted without thought to how it destroyed others. In the days that have long since past, you were a true warrior!"

"I was a fool in my youth, a misguided idiot led down a dark path by worse men than myself. Now, I am as old as some of them and can only hope that in time, even a fraction of the repentance I have attempted to put forth can be accepted by those I've wronged. I do not expect to be forgiven, even with raising Menelaus as my own for eleven years," Hyperion told the specter.

"Yet when he was an infant, you initially wanted to abandon him to the elements, did you not? You wanted to leave him for predators to eventually find, only taking him in when you realized that the path you walked had gotten you nowhere except to your squalor on Ando Prime. Tell me that is not true!" Morgana said, speaking through the specter of Hyperion's youth. Hyperion chuckled and rather than fight it, he told her the truth of how he had initially felt about Menelaus.

"Yes, it's true. My training advised that because he was weak, he was undeserving to survive. But something in the back of my head told me that he was only weak because he was an infant. He could be made strong with training and good rearing, this could be certain if I just gave it a shot. How was I to know I'd grow to... to love him along the way?" Hyperion admitted.

"Love? What do you know of love? Who have you ever loved!?" Morgana snapped back at him. Hyperion didn't change tone nor did he show any sign of weakness as he spoke of who had touched his heart.

"I loved my brother. A part of me that remembered when we'd play hide and seek in father's gardens always spoke to me, telling me not to kill him or I'd have nothing. As time went by and my so-called rational mind trusted the Dark Side more, I tried to stamp out that part of me that loved him. But I couldn't do it, I couldn't bring myself to destroy my ties with the only family I had left even as I had believed him my truest enemy at that time. And now, he has given me a shot at freedom, a chance to earn his forgiveness," Hyperion stated.

"Do you really believe that, Hyperion? How do you know that your brother isn't simply using your connection to the Dark Side so he could gain unprecedented repute as a Jedi Knight?" Morgana countered, the spectre of youthful Hyperion weakening as the real deal stood firm.

"It's all I have, Morgana. To believe that my brother has sensed good in me for all this time has always been possible. And whether he wants glory for himself or not is something I'll deal with when our bargain is complete," Hyperion replied. Admittedly, he sometimes wondered if his brother had become a glory-seeking hound of the Jedi but dismissed it. If Dantius cared for glory, he would've been much more active in the military much sooner than he was in his career with the Jedi.

"And what if your daughter becomes a potential cost in your need for absolution. Suppose the Jedi decide to show her no mercy and kill her when she fights back against them to save the very Empire you are working to destroy. What will you do then?" Morgana taunted, throwing the hardest question at him that she had asked yet. Unfortunately for her, as a father, Hyperion knew the meaning of sacrifice and knew what it meant to lay down his life for his child as his time with Menelaus had proven.

"I would kill, torture, regress to my old ways, die by the blade of my own brother, and waste as many lives as I could in my path of destruction before I allowed that to happen. Damn the fact that you poisoned her into trying to kill me when we first met, damn the fact that she didn't want to believe I'd reformed when she first gazed on me because she is still my child!" he snapped.

"If only you had been this protective of your brother when you first gaze on my sister. Perhaps none of this would've happened if you'd been such the gentleman that you portray yourself now," she said, finally relenting for the moment and letting the spectre finally dissipate. Again, it dissolved into a white ball of fire that showed the path Hyperion was next to take.


	8. Chapter Eight

**Chapter Eight**

While Hyperion was fighting an ethereal battle with Morgana's soul and Dantius mercenaries were overrunning Dathomir, Crassus had escaped to Korriban. He didn't know how long to expect Dathomir to last though he didn't anticipate it lasting much longer than the time it would take for him to return to Balmorra. So he had to make the meeting with Lord Scourge quick and painless if he wanted to have any hope that the Sith would be led by a competent, strong, and immortal warrior with experience in the way of ruling over lesser fools. Scourge had arrived before him, punctual as he had been reputed to be during his time as the Emperor's Wrath under Lord Vitiate. "Greetings Lord Scourge, I am the current Emperor of what remains of the Sith Empire and I am called Darth Imperius," Crassus said, lying about his true name for good reason.

"I sense the power in you. But if you expect me to bow before you, you are sorely mistaken. Get to the point," Scourge told him. Crassus flashed a wicked grin with his new set of wicked Pau'an teeth and did precisely that.

"As you would doubtless know better than anyone, Vitiate sustained himself by consuming planets of their life and Force energies, making him immortal and healing him from wounds. It is my intention to partake in the same ritual on the planet of Nogatan, having discovered ways of improving its speed and the quality of what I can expect from success enormously. Should I be successful, I would like the strongest and oldest surviving Sith there is to be at my side as the Emperor's Wrath, a title I believe you once held until you tried to stop Vitiate from consuming the entire galaxy. But if I fail, I would like to ensure that the Sith are ruled by the strongest there is and unfortunately neither the current Wrath nor his daughter qualify as I hoped they would be," Crassus told him.

"So you have asked me to take the title of your lieutenant if you succeed or rule in your absence if you do not. What would you offer me in return if I were to say yes?" Scourge replied.

"The one thing you have always wanted, an Imperial pardon for crimes committed against the Sith in the name of stopping Lord Vitiate. It is long since recognized that Vitiate's plans would've destroyed everything whether Jedi or Sith despite the circumstances that led you away. Though you will speak it, I will convince the Sith that because they didn't see the truth as you did, you were forced to rely on Jedi in order to take him down as you weren't strong enough yourself. Which brings me to the other benefit of having you as the Emperor: you would be the strongest in my absence but not so powerful that you couldn't be overthrown by anyone Sith who was worthy," Crassus said.

"Likewise, if you succeed, you know it would be possible for me to rally rivals among the members of the new Dark Council if I felt it was your time. Ensuring that no matter the outcome, the strongest shall rule the remainder of the Sith until they are ready to return in a more natural way for more righteous reasons than the ones that compelled Vitiate," Scourge said. Crassus nodded and handed him a datapad filled with the plans Crassus had for the Sith restoration once they were able to escape the blades of the Jedi. When Scourge looked up at him in inquiry, he then recognized that he had forgotten to say where this would take place.

"The coordinates are included in the tracker on that datapad. Transmit them to your comlink then destroy them when you have jumped into hyperspace that you may not be followed. That is, assuming you accept my offer and those plans are for you if you accept and I have not survived the ceremony," Crassus said. He snapped his fingers and a moment later, a letter with a seal and tassel to keep it folded manifested in his hands from a servant. "Your letter of pardon and your speech for being accepted as my heir if I should fall and, again, you have accepted my offer," he added.

"You seem in a hurry," Scourge taunted.

"The Jedi have attacked one of my last two worlds, led there by my Wrath who was operating as a double agent for them. His daughter is unknowingly complicit in his game to destroy the Empire but never you mind. Once I have returned, I will see to their destruction but first I must return which leaves me no time to hear your answer to my offer. If you accept, head for those coordinates at once and await the coming of the Sith fleet I will deploy there," Crassus told him. He bowed and Scourge did the same before Crassus turned around to board the shuttle whose pilot had kept its engines warm for a quick exit when Crassus had made his offer.

The Sith Emperor knew Scourge would at least consider the offer before rejecting it, if he did. He knew that Scourge had wanted only to save the Sith from the folly of fueling a madman's quest for eternal life, a quest that would've resulted in a galaxy devoid even of Sith life. By giving him Imperial pardon for his attempts on Vitiate's life and naming him his heir if no other is strong enough in the event of Crassus' death, he was giving him an incredibly sweet deal. He would be a fool to turn this down to return to a life on the run, an unrepentant fugitive in lands he did not know, hated by those who did not know the part he'd played in saving their lives.

Even winning the Republic's greatest honor in light of the Hero of Tython's first victory over Vitiate had not saved him from facing discrimination by fearful, insipid beings. Besides, the power of the Dark Side flowed within him and there would be no altering that anymore than there was no altering his disagreements with the ways of the Jedi, born meeting Revan. Even so, he did not have the fortitude to risk everything (including his life) the way Revan did to the cause of destroying Vitiate and had not done so whenever he could. More, Scourge had never known his true family even when he was a youth in the Sith Academy, much less care for them if he did.

If Crassus had understood his character right, he knew that Scourge would go for it in the hope of being respected and feared for a good reason rather than being feared by idiots. His conscience would wrestle with him and all he had done in the name of the Sith he allegedly cared about and the new life he had made for himself in the Republic, despite being a Sith Pureblood. Even so, Crassus knew he was still taking a massive gamble one that would see the doom of the Sith if it backfired especially if he failed to complete the ritual. But sometimes those who won the greatest gambles were the ones with the strongest will, the will to take them and prosper when they won the rewards of the gamble as he knew he'd done time and again in his youth.


	9. Chapter Nine

**Chapter Nine**

Dantius had managed to land battalions of the Silver Hands onto Dathomir with Ashlynn to lead them, deciding that he would use the mercenaries first. Aside from Dathomir having what seemed like the larger portion of forces, Dantius figured that draining his mercenary pool first would leave the Sith at an unexpected disadvantage when they didn't see them. By now, he knew that they would most likely have learned about the mercenaries and would anticipate Dantius hiring more mercenaries as opposed to facing their mortal enemy. Knowing this, they would be surprised when they saw the banner of the Republic and at best, might provide the kind of token resistance that would ensure the Empire's days didn't end on a whimper. He also had yet to request reinforcements from the Chancellor and would have preferred to keep it that way until he reached Nogatan.

Realizing that Inoy and Ashlynn would be more than capable of a successful expedition when the former's aquatic force landed, Dantius decided to comm them with a change of plan. "Ashlynn, if you and Inoy have Dathomir covered, Jace and I will be taking Republic forces to Balmorra. Meet us at Nogatan when you're done here and I'll keep Jace on standby to ring up the reinforcements from there standby, ten parsecs from Nogatan's planetary system," Dantius said.

"Hold on, Danny boy. I'm rejoining you: Colonel Silver is insistent that he lead his forces here on the ground and Inoy's assured me he's got everything covered here. Why doesn't Jace stay here to coordinate the space attack here then they can regroup at Nogatan with the reinforcements?" Ashlynn offered. Before Jace spoke, Dantius countered in the manner more typical of Jedi Knights.

"To her credit, your battles with the Sith began in space on a station above Korriban. How about leading one of the last space battles in the history of this Sith Empire instead of being the grunt? Don't worry, you'll be there when they're destroyed for good at Nogatan," Dantius assured him. Jace nodded and requested a shuttle back to his personal cruiser from which he'd departed to have a private conference with the three Jedi in his company before the invasion of Dathomir. In return, Ashlynn disembarked from the shuttle and joined Dantius in the hyperspace jump to Balmorra with all the Republic's fleet except for those troops that Inoy had taken with him and the extraction craft necessary to get them to Nogatan afterwards, including Jace's ship.

As soon as they arrived at Balmorra, however, they were met with even less resistance then anticipated. A minor scuffle with no casualties marked a prompt surrender of Dathomir to the Jedi which Dantius was not expecting. "If Crassus is almost ready to begin the ceremony that could explain why Balmorra was surrendered so quickly. I think I'll wait on calling reinforcements until I see the full scope of what I'm up against on Nogatan. Meantime Ashlynn, send a holo transmission to Inoy and Jace, tell them to join us at Nogatan as soon as they've destroyed resistance on Dathomir," Dantius said.

Ashlynn nodded and did as her former lover bade, returning with news that Inoy's underwater forces were about to engage the Dathomir temple. More, the Silver Hands had begun their engagement on the temple's front about half a standard day ahead of schedule. Dantius smiled and nodded, knowing that any little advantage helped and thus gave the go-ahead for Inoy's aquatic force to launch their own attack on the temple's vulnerable flank. Meanwhile, he and Ashlynn put a Republic beacon on Balmorra, making sure that the Chancellor could confirm that Balmorra was safely in Republic fold and would be sending a separate fleet to protect it. Though both the politician and the Jedi knew that an incursion to reclaim Balmorra or Dathomir was unlikely, it didn't hurt to secure them in the off chance others might wish to seize the opportunities the Sith never allowed them to exploit.

"There's a great swelling of pulsing Dark Side energy the closer we get to Nogatan. Either the planet has a strong signature of the Dark Side and Crassus has merely added to it with his power and priceless Sith artifacts or he has begun the ritual already. How far off are we from the planet?" Dantius asked Ashlynn.

"We're coming up on the planet within the hour. I had the deceleration process start three hours ago and we should be coming to the end of the jump in forty-five standard minutes. We'll arrive at the planet's surface about ten minutes or so after," Ashlynn replied. At first, Knight Thorin was somewhat reluctant to concede to her former consort in this fashion but she could see his excitement and knew from having made love to him before that there was no dissuading him. Not when he had told her before about how his grandfather just wouldn't kriffing die, no matter how many times he was defeated by his enemies.

"Good, I want to get in the action and this forever once we get off the jump. I'm calling the reinforcements, with or without major resistance. Better to make sure they're wiped away from the face of the galaxy and that grandpa fails than give him even the slightest bit of hope," Dantius ordered. Ashlynn relayed the orders to the fleet and had the frequency for reinforcements on standby in case he decided he would go ahead and call them, regardless of army size.

And it was fortunate he had come to the decision because the resistance they met was four and a half times the size of the standard fleet size and was made of largely elite ships that seemed to hold the populace of Nogatan hostage for the purpose of the ceremony. Dantius was even willing to bet there there was a ground force of messengers and enforcers, warning the people not to try and escape. And of course, these would be relocated once their task was done on the planet to a place Crassus would want them to go unless they couldn't break through the space battle. But that wasn't all, in fact even the deal with Balmorra had not quite been completed yet, due to the news that Inoy would soon relay when he had arrived there within mere hours of finalizing the Sith's defeat on Dathomir. Searching among those abandoned, he found a girl trained as a Sith Sorceress beside an older, comatose man who was much to haggard in appearance to be her lover. It was when Inoy recognized him as Hyperion and reported it that Dantius had become confused.

How had Hyperion gotten himself comatose and who was the girl that had been by his side when he was recovered? Did she know of Hyperion's original mission to help the Republic bring down the Sith Empire forever? Or would she be hearing it for the first time when Inoy briefed her on it, considering she surrendered without a fight? These questions were all answered when Inoy revealed that the girl had named herself Morgause Brilliante, the niece of Morgana who had been known to the Sith as Darth Minshuto before her death at Hyperion's hands. Suddenly, Dantius began to put the pieces into place, understanding exactly who this woman was and what had likely happened.

Morgana never had children, despite having a voracious sexual appetite in her youth, likely as a result of accepting her inability to conceive. Hyperion, on the other hand, had raped a perfectly quaint and socially quiet sister of Morgana's and Dantius' former lover by the name of Patricia. The unholy union had produced a daughter that Patricia had proceeded to abandon when she threw herself to her death from the top of one of Taris' highest towers. After she committed suicide, her parents were killed whilst on the way to pick up the infant from daycare that they could barely afford, an accident the police suspected was staged by someone with a motive. Custody of the child had fallen to Morgana and no one had heard from the baby since, not even her name at the time of her birth.

 _So the spawn of Hyperion's loins has finally revealed herself and she's in cahoots with her father? Why? There's no way Morgana would've raised her that way with her vendetta against Hyperion and there's no way the child would have resisted her words, being dependent on her for many years!_ Dantius thought to himself angrily. He finally had a chance to meet his niece and she had also been a Sith though likely not armed with the same mission as Hyperion at the start of her tenure. So many questions and so little time to get them answered at the moment which encouraged Dantius to have Hyperion relocated to the medical bay and the girl relocated to a holding room if she was willing to cooperate and give her father some rest.

And on further thinking of it, Dantius wasn't surprised that the child's name would be Morgause, least of all in the hands of Morgana in her infancy. "Begin the attack, start with a wedge formation of missiles from the cruisers then follow up with two standard defensive lines. We're going to break through them and get down to my grandfather if it's the last thing we do in our entire lives. And somebody get on waking up my brother so he can join us in stopping the Sith forever," Dantius declared. Then he called on reinforcements to join from the northeast flank of the battle so that they could hope to take the fleet by surprise.

He also wanted to see what intel he could recover out of Hyperion about Crassus' plan and why he had been thrown into a coma. More, he wanted to meet his long lost niece at long last, curious to see how powerful she was with the Force. To his credit, if she were sufficiently gifted, it would appear that Hyperion had a knack for finding gifted children to raise whether by producing them from his seed or adopting them of his own accord. The discoveries he had made with Menelaus before the incursion with the Sith had begun would certainly have indicated as much to Hyperion himself and they indicated themselves that way to Dantius now.


	10. Chapter Ten

**Chapter Ten**

Hyperion was still fighting the ethereal battle with Morgana when his physical shell was finally picked up by forces led by his brother. But in the realm where time seemed not to exist, he didn't even feel himself being lifted onto the stretcher. He didn't even know that the Jedi had somehow breached Balmorra and gotten to him, let alone that Dathomir had fallen. Were it not for the fact that he had already heard the reports of Dathomir being attacked, he wouldn't have even been able to guess how such a battle would turn out. Having completed two of Morgana's tests, he also noticed that he no longer had the pitch black skin that he had started with.

He still had the gauntlet of his youth and his present set of armor but beyond that, still wielded his original Sith lightsaber instead of his present blades. Marching onward, he looked back to see that the path he took was now enshrouded in the darkness from whence he had come. It was as if the steps he'd taken to free himself from the darkness enshrouded the path behind him in the process, persuading him that he should only focus on going ahead. When his path came to an abrupt stop, due to a ledge that led into an even deeper abyss than the one he traversed, he stopped and took a pause. The white torch which had guided him this way then plummeted once his eyes had set themselves upon it, indicating to him that the only way out was down.

"The Dark Side of the Force has discarded me," said an echoing voice that sounded like Hyperion's more youthful form. Except he didn't remember saying it when the words had first manifested: about a month after he discovered Menelaus, he remembered merely thinking them. All around him, the darkness was consuming everything that could've seen him walking along, encouraging him to go forth despite there being no ground left to walk on. So he grabbed the hilt of his lightsaber and brought the blade hand next to his chest before stepping forward. As he did so, he heard his younger voice say, "Now I know no..."

As he fell, he remembered having said that he had then known no hope left, a thought that in hindsight was as insipid as it had been desperate. While falling, he also decided to ignite the lightsaber, its crimson blade rising forth as if a great beast were at last awakening. He didn't know how long he fell, didn't know how long it would be, or what would be awaiting him when he reached the bottom. All he knew was that when he finally saw something materialize that looked like the bottom, he used the Force to slow himself down just enough that he could survive the landing without any broken bones. When he did, he saw that he had landed on the only patch of solid rock in a infernal river of lava, whose other rock matter was shattering like clay and breaking apart to allow more breathing space for the magma.

"Behold, Hyperion! The hatred, fear, anger, lust, and betrayal that you have wrought with your actions. All the heat of all the emotions of everyone you have ever wronged embodied in the ultimate river of destruction that lays waste to all it touches. How do you feel, standing before the fires of the torment you caused others? To stand before their despair and feel it wafting in waves of heat before you as they surely must be doing now?" Morgana asked him.

All around him, he could hear the voices of those he had wronged, in particular their profanities, shouts, screams, and weepings culminating into a cacophony of sorrow. An epic composition of horror, sadness, grief, and torment rose from within the lava to swallow even Morgana's voice. He heard the voices of many figures he had long since forgotten, people whose lives had meant so little to him at the time but now rose up to have greater meaning for him. "Do you know what you've done, Hyperion?!" cried out his father.

"You've taken everything from me!" said an anguished old man he vaguely remembered. In his early days as a blade for hire, he'd been asked to assassinate an influential aristocrat who'd been so cocky, she willed her assets to be liquidated and the finance awarded the one who killed her. Hyperion had taken the job as a favor to a Dark Lord who had everything to gain from her death, including her position in accordance with her will and Imperial dictates. But there was one other voice he thought he wouldn't hear again after he destroyed Clyde Rev and his last stronghold.

"I will have my revenge on you, Hyperion! You will not long escape me as the smuggler did!" shouted Drak. After this, the lava even began to form arms and teeth that scratched and bit away at his solid peninsula. He looked around for a way to escape, some way he could perhaps avoid the destruction of his lifeboat and his plummet into the lava of his sins below him. Then he heard a voice that called to him, a voice that urged him to rise above what was happening around him.

"I love you, Daddy! I need you!" Morgause was calling. But she wasn't calling with just her voice: he could hear Menelaus begging for his father as well. And as the lava around him intensified, swallowing up more of the peninsula, he found a new fire welling up within him as well.

"Where are my children, Morgana?" he demanded at once. His voice shook everything around him and kept the hands of the long dead from scratching at more of his peninsula. He said it with such assertion and authority that he could even see some of these old hands putting pieces back onto his little island.

"You are in the realm of the soul, Hyperion. Your children are nowhere to be found and they wouldn't help you even if they could be brought here," Morgana said. He detected a slight tremor in her voice as she spoke, the echoes distorting any sense of direction as to where it might be coming from. But Hyperion didn't back down, promised himself he wouldn't back down, and continued onward.

"Lead me to my children Morgana or by the Force, I swear I will tear every organ out of your body and make sure you stay awake long enough to feel it!" Hyperion promised. From anyone else's perspective, the white flame Hyperion had once been gazing on was now starting to burn out his eyes and extinguish the darkness of his past with every declaration he made. Morgana tried to stop him from escaping the lava which was slowly beginning to cool down and harden all around him as his own intensity strengthened.

"You will _never_ see Menelaus or Morgause again, I will destroy you and take your place in the corporeal realm! I will exact my revenge on my ungrateful niece first then track Menelaus down and kill him slowly. Perhaps even let a criminal fiend have their way with him once or twice before I end his pitiful existence as you once had your way with Patricia! You are a monster Hyperion and I swore to put you down!" she replied. Meanwhile, the white flame in Hyperion only burned brighter as he made his next commandments.

"You will do no such thing, Morgana! Come, face me now and end this long feud once and for all!" Hyperion said. He turned over to the hand with his lightsaber and noticed that the blade had changed. Rather than the red blade of his youth, it now had a black core and a fiery white flame where the light of the blade would've been. So he reversed the grip on his blade and plunged it into the rock beneath him, causing an explosion of white flame to rip through the entire inferno, blanketing everything with the white except for him.

Even the flame that had covered his eyes departed to help him wipe away the voices that also included that of Patricia, whose screams he recognized from when he raped her. All around him now, there was nothing but white and even his blade reflected a deactivated lightsaber rather than a weapon of destruction. At first, he thought he had passed all his tests and would now be allowed to go back into the corporeal shell. _I should be so lucky_ he thought to himself quietly.

And just then, the outlines of three dimensional shapes began to form as if in response to his thoughts. Color soon returned and filled them until he finally recognized the place he was in with dawning horror. "Do you remember this place, Hyperion? The location of your greatest sin, the sin that made me Darth Minshuto? Perhaps you have what it takes to reverse the deeds of the past," Morgana mocked.

The room was empty except for Hyperion himself and he knew why that was the case. Part of the reason that Hyperion had had his way with Patricia was because she had been in the shower and come to answer him only with a towel that he had ripped away when he assaulted her. He didn't say anything but instead ignited his blade which didn't have the red this time but had the purple of Seth's blade as if symbolizing his purification from his sins. Smirking, he prepared himself for what was to come even as he saw it unveil before him.

"Hyperion, what are you doing in my room?" Patricia asked, the question she would've been asking a little later on when Hyperion had come in during that night. But he knew this wasn't real, merely the last test and he had a feeling he knew what he was going to do the very minute that he heard the knocking he remembered making to enter. Before Patricia could answer, he swung his lightsaber out in front of her to stop her from answering the door, shaking his head at her as she made to ask him what the hell he was doing. That was why he wasn't surprised when he heard the figure of his younger self begin breaking down the door to get himself into commit the crime.

But the Hyperion of the present day prepared for him, fully expecting to have a lightsaber confrontation with his more insipid, younger form. When the door finally broke, Morgana didn't disappoint, presenting him not with one but hundreds of young Hyperion spectre copies.


	11. Chapter Eleven

**Chapter Eleven**

Hyperion cut down dozens of the young spectres, left and right, making sure that not one of them closed in on Patricia. "There is nothing you can do to stop me, Morgana! I will save your sister," Hyperion vowed as he sliced down the spectres. Sure enough, he summoned slugthrower pistols, grenades, shurikens, throwing knives, spears, and even summoned shot after shot of the wrist blade that he could launch from his gauntlet. He even summoned nets for flying spectres so that he could destroy them without even having to fight them.

" _How are you doing this? This is impossible!_ " Morgana demanded.

"My mind, my rules or did you forget whose head you entered already you little bitch?" Hyperion snapped back. He fought of the spectres with his main arsenal which fortunately didn't require him to make much use of a lightsaber, his ax, or his whip. This assault was sustained for several moments with Hyperion using grenades to do damage when there was still some distance between himself and the spectres of his youth. When one of the ones that were levitated above him began closing in, he used his nets and alternated between the wrist blades and the spear whenever those needed reloading. He would also use his throwing knives and shurikens against the ones that were closing in to the front of him so that he could buy himself enough time to toss more thermal detonators.

Any of the spectres who passed all that never made it past his slugthrowers which kept his defense nigh impregnable without using a lightsaber or other bladed weapon. "Enough of this!" Morgana said. Right as she did so, Hyperion felt a pang of agony cut through his head with a heat more intense than any lightsaber and clang more heavy than any hammer. "Now, you will have no use of your blasters, no use of your detonators, no use even of your shurikens, throwing knives, nets, or blades you can shoot out your wrist! See if you can save her without them," Morgana shouted, the spectres significantly lessened but still a formidable number.

Above them, the roof turned to dust and the walls fell away to reveal a vast grey sky studded with stars and spectres arriving on floating bits of building. The illusion of Patricia was still near him for protection sake but Hyperion knew that he had a couple more tricks left in the bag for protecting her. "If you think the shortage of weapons will stop me, you'd better think again Morgana," Hyperion said. Then his mind produced the whip with a couple more powers that he added to it without Morgana being able to know. He also kept his shield at the ready in case anyone got past it until he could use one of the powers his whip now possessed to shift it into the ax so that he could cleave their head in two without drawing his lightsabers out.

But for the moment, he was doing just fine with the whip, absorbing the energy of the fallen spectres into every lock of its long, bladed tendril. When he killed about another forty or so spectres, he revealed one other power he'd given the whip just in time for another three hundred tried to mob him. He raised the hilt of the whip over his head then brought down the business end to cast a flame so wide and intense that it consumed them all, reducing them to ash in seconds. " _No, this cannot be!_ " Morgana demanded.

"It can because this is _my_ mind, and therefore my rules as I said!" Hyperion told her, catching other spectres with the hook of his whip and tearing their throats or spines out. Fortunately, he was now beginning to see the end and he calculated he could actually do battle with his ax and attached wrist blade in combination to his shield after just one more fire burst. So he absorbed enough energy from the spectres to charge his whip then unleashed the attack, once more reducing all in the vicinity to ash within ethereal seconds. Shifting the whip into his ax and producing his shield, he prepared for the remaining spectres to arrive and when they did, he used the shield to deflect their lightsabers and brought his ax on their heads or guts. He didn't absorb their energy but instead let it disperse, occasionally supplementing his fighting with the mounted wrist blade he could collapse into his gauntlet but not shoot from it.

When he was closer to the end, he noticed his gauntlet wither and turn into several rusted pieces which broke off his arm, freeing him from that aspect of his past at last. When he was down to just three more spectres, he threw his ax into one, threw his hunting knife into another, then used his shield to beat the last one to death. As the last one finally faded, the battle coming to an end whilst the land all around Hyperion was beginning to shrink, he raised his head to the ethereal heavens and shouted in rage. "Is that the best you have to offer me, Morgana? I took your sister from you yes, but I have now given her back to you," he shouted.

" _You cannot save her anymore than I could when you first ravaged her. When you had your way with her, you gave up any real chance of love and respect from her or your brother in the quest for dominance and ultimate power. There is always a price to be paid for all that you could ever fight for,_ " Morgana hissed at him.

"There is nothing in this galaxy that is so immense that it is worth stepping on the backs of other people. I know that now, Morgana, and I have known it since I raised Menelaus as my son while you raised your niece as your own," Hyperion said, remorse thick in his voice.

" _Spare me your sentiments, Hyperion!_ " Morgana screamed, this time the words flowing from the mouths of Patricia. " _You believed no price was too high for the power the Dark Side offered! In your youth, you gladly paid those prices and now you shrink away from the chains you have cast on yourself!? You dare pretend you could ever be valued as a moral man ever again, should you have been in your childhood? The only fate that awaits you is your death, your oblivion in the abyss while I transfer my consciousness into your physical shell!_ "

Before Hyperion could react, Patricia's wrapped towel changed into the robe and hood of Morgana, one of Patricia's eyes changed color to suit her sister's eyes, and two lightsabers appeared. "You will have no other weapons, no other tricks up your sleeve but the lightsaber and your Force powers. Face me with honor or die in disgrace!" she said when the transformation was complete. Hyperion reached for a pair of lightsabers on his chest straps and when he ignited them, he was only mildly surprised that he was fighting with Seth's blade and the red one he'd wielded as a rogue Sith warrior. Saluting his opponent with the purple one, he turned and faced her as she readied for him with her own crimson lightsabers that glowed with the color of blood around her.

"About time you stopped fracking around and faced me. I was hoping you'd duel with me sooner but seeing as only cowards follow the Dark Side through and through, I won't hold it against you to be afraid of me," he told her. Morgana didn't say anything for a moment then sneered and shot back with fire of her own for him.

"Brave words from a doomed man," she assured him. Then they dueled with Hyperion taking the advantage early by swiping in wide arcs with his blade while Morgana fell back on close-quartered defensive stratagems. They sparred like this for a few seconds until Morgana was able to use Force-imbued speed to kick Hyperion in the chest, sending him into the air but only enough to back flip, landing on his hands then pushing himself back to his feet. He did this in time to intercept a slash from Morgana then neutralize her reach for a brief moment. But given her own Makashi expertise, she was soon using jabs of precise nature that he dodged, countering by attempting to slice her legs off then trying to bisect her, each attempt with one blade.

In counter, she leapt and tried to stab him with both blades but because he had lowered himself into a crouching kick that would have tripped her, there was only one thing to do. When she landed, he wheeled again with the other leg and kicked her square in the midsection, adding a Force push to the blow to send her spinning through the air. She used the Force to hurl a boulder at his right flank that was promptly deflected with a downward slash of Hyperion's purple blade. When she threw another one straight for his face in near concurrence, he raised both lightsabers up in an underhand that formed an X-shaped slash. For good measure, he also added a bit of Force repulse in order to accelerate the process of tearing the rock apart.

But having not yet learned her lesson, Morgana hurled one towards his legs as he charged her but he leapt over this, landed on the boulder with his feet then leapt over that. When he landed conducted a series of power strikes using the Shien reverse grip which helped disarm her of one of her blades readily whilst keeping her on the defensive with the other. Rushing her with his red blade held forth in a reverse grip, he forced her to use a burst of speed to back away from him despite her wounds. But he leapt across to cover the distance and allowed no remorse, hounding her with power strikes from both blades until he had finally sliced off her right hand, ripping the last blade from her grasp and plunging his crimson one into her. To ensure his success, he activated his Force Rage and fought with the power coursing through his veins as in years past.

When his red blade successfully plunged into her abdomen, purple and blue fires began to leave her as she realized with dawning horror that she failed to take over his mind. "How?" she asked, looking up at him as she began to accept her oblivion.

"Through victory our chains are broken or so the Sith Code teaches us, Morgana. What they don't teach you is that true victory lies in confessing your flaws and learning to move past them. True power lies in being able to admit one's sins and being humble enough to seek repentance no matter how atrocious the original sin may have been," Hyperion said. And with that Morgana burst into blue and purple flames, consuming everything in Hyperion's vision until a white light blocked out even that, likely signalling his return to corporeal consciousness.


	12. Chapter Twelve

**Chapter Twelve**

"By the Force, I don't believe it! You've come back!" Morgause exclaimed when Hyperion awoke. Hyperion rose up enough to accept an embrace from his daughter which she gladly gave when he could accept. But when he realized what she was doing, he backed up a little as best he could.

"Wait, how do you know it's me? How do you know it isn't your aunt?" Hyperion asked.

"Because she'd be saying something like, 'of course, I'm back' if she were here. You're more humble and asked me the question of how I knew. And it does help to have a Force bond that can detect when she's finally become one with the Force or not. C'mon Dad, I was only with her since I was six-months old!" Morgause teased. Hyperion chuckled slightly at the compliment his daughter paid him, perhaps the kindest thing anyone had said to him.

"I love you, Morgause. I'm sorry I wasn't there to see your birth, I'm sorry I didn't see you take your first steps, graduate school, or become a powerful adept of the Force. Sorry for everything I ever did wrong to you by not being there, allow me to be there for you now to watch you grow even stronger," Hyperion said, sobbing into her shoulder. Morgause held her father close to her, letting him display paternal affection for the first time in his life.

"When you were unconscious, I pleaded to the Force that you would live. I begged and wept, by your side and told you I needed you. And... and you heard me," Morgause told him as she returned his embrace. Hyperion nodded, remembering when he heard her say that she needed him when he was fighting Morgana in the ethereal realm of his mind.

"So... you are my niece, after all," said a voice Hyperion was not altogether pleased to hear though he knew he would. But there was something embittered in Dantius' voice, which Hyperion noted as he turned to face him, like he still carrying the wound of what Hyperion had done to conceive Morgause. "As much as I would love to see this reunion continue, I'm afraid we still have important matters to attend to. Our advance scouts have reported that Crassus has gathered the artifacts with which to start the ceremony and I'm guessing they're organized where Crassus felt he could draw on their power in a steady stream until he could start draining life," Dantius said.

"He'll most likely use the cache readily available on Nogatan because he recognizes their power but believes the Nogatan Sith to be the bottom of the barrel for the Empire. Their victory over Vitiate's holdings notwithstanding, he'll feel good about draining the power out of their holocrons and destroying them to eradicate every trace of their abomination. If he can snag the remaining Dark Lords there in addition to the populace, all the better to him on that end. How far along are we with destroying the rest of the Sith?" Hyperion replied, turning his body so he was more comfortable when his brother spoke.

"We started the attack on Dathomir and conquered it relatively easily. Balmorra has just barely fallen and we're rounding up any traces of Zakuul technology to add to the Republic's arsenal as well. The Dathomir force is going to meet us at Nogatan and the Balmorra reinforcements will soon follow as well. Since we've barely used any of our true forces for the battle, relying on mercenaries that owed me favors, we still have our full strength for the Nogatan battle," Dantius answered.

"Then we have no time to waste when we arrive, let's get cracking on strategy now. I already have information on the layout of Nogatan from when Crassus had me looking for worlds to retreat to or, more likely, consume for the ceremony. I've got the goods on spots Crassus will most likely leave vulnerable just because he's stalling for time and hoping to consume the most lives he can when it starts," Hyperion said, raising himself up to begin preparations. He was in hospital gowns at the moment with his armor and arsenal likely being washed and sanitized for when he recovered. But even so, Dantius stopped him right where he was before he'd taken more than three steps toward the strategy room.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, where the hell are you going? You just fought across the cosmos of your mind and beat a strong-willed Sith Lady's spirit. There's no way you're fit to fight alongside us, you need more rest," Dantius told him.

"I will rest when we've destroyed the Sith or we die at the Emperor's hands. Besides, no ethereal battle has caused physical wounds because they don't need to for their damage to be done. I won and that usually means I'm up to the task of the more physical aspects of our duty and it's not like I'd be using just my lightsabers when we fight even if I were affected. Now are you gonna let me in to help you strategize or am I going to have to make you?" Hyperion snapped back at him. Dantius knew he could probably make sure Hyperion didn't enter the room if he felt like it but he knew he'd have a bigger fight than he probably needed presently.

So he nodded and snapped his fingers, asking a nurse to bring Hyperion's armor and weapons before directing Hyperion to a changing room where he would acquire his gear. Reclaiming the armor first, he closed the front door and donned on the armor before asking for his weapons at the opening of the door. From there, he clipped his paired wrist blades, collapsible spear, shurikens, throwing knives, thermal detonators, his shield, ax, whip, slugthrower pistols, and his lightsabers. He also attached a comlink to his shield arm so that he could communicate with Dantius while deflecting blaster fire with the durable defensive gear. At the same time, he made sure his shield could still collapse into itself, allowing him to use it as a knuckleduster, making his left hand durable enough to compare to his right one in punching.

When he was dressed, Morgause and Dantius awaited him with the hologram of Inoy, Ashlynn Thorin, and Jace Malcom awaiting him. "So, this is what's become of the great Hyperion Algethii. I'll admit I'm impressed you're still alive," Ashlynn remarked when she could see him.

"Inoy, it's so good to see you again. You've become a formidable warrior which will come in handy when we hit Nogatan with all we have. That aside, let's get the rundown initiated, I've still got the information you need to follow along with my strategy. But first, I'll need to know what we've got going for us as far as our forces go. Because he deliberately put three times as much defense into Nogatan as he did into Dathomir and Balmorra combined," Hyperion said.


	13. Chapter Thirteen

**Chapter Thirteen**

Hyperion was pleased by what he heard about Republic forces, including the new amphibian force that Inoy could lead across Nogatan's waterways if necessary. He also found that Ashlynn and Dantius could lead their own force upon the land, while Jace could break through the space forces that protected the Sith Emperor from the intrusions of the Jedi. However, the Sith would have four rings of artillery planetside that could likely slow down progress, provided the amphibian forces of Inoy didn't destroy them first. So Hyperion concluded that the amphibious force would attack the artillery ring ahead of the main force with Ashlynn and Jace breaking an entrance open in the space forces.

"The land forces will need to go in three stages with Inoy's attacks on the artillery rings being the first stage," Hyperion began. Inoy bowed and promised that he would have his new army ready for the attack within the hour before his arrival to Nogatan. When he cut transmission, Hyperion continued with his stratagems. "Ideally, Dantius and I should lead the calvary through the first artillery ring and keep no less than half our forces intact by the time we reach the third ring. After Ashlynn and Jace have breached a hole in space defenses with a series of wedge formations and sprays of missiles, Jace will lead reinforcements down to join us for the assault on the palace itself," he added a moment later.

"Why me, might I ask Hyperion?" Jace asked.

"You were there when this war started, you fought alongside Satele Shan and her first master at Korriban. Later, you delivered the wounds that deformed Lord Malgus at Alderaan and helped Satele repel him. Wouldn't you like to see how the war ends?" Hyperion replied.

"I'll see it well enough from space and my days of doing battle on the land are done with. Not to worry, I will lead space forces to victory while Ashlynn leads the reinforcements to join you. Besides, you're gonna need every lightsaber you can throw at the palace once you get there if what you've mentioned already about Dark Lords being there is true," Jace said. Hyperion conceded that point nonverbally and realized it would be far better to have three other lightsabers beside his own than to have two.

"So Ashlynn will lead the reinforcements when we have confirmed that we have blasted through the artillery rings. From there, we'll make a direct assault on the palace and blast our way to Crassus' chamber. Force willing, he will not be able to perform the ceremony in time to make our efforts in vain. I'm recommending that the Republic start out with its droid soldiers on the land first since they won't need to reload their weapons as often and can follow strategy to the tee. Plus, when they're low on batteries, they can be wired to self-destruct so that the enemy cannot reload and reprogram them for their cause," Hyperion said.

"And how do we get in the palace? It's not like we can just waltz to the front door and knock." Ashlynn inquired.

"There's a moat that the aquatic force can ascend if they remain a sustainable force. Should they have the numbers, they can climb on through it, reach the front door from behind and let us in after taking out the gate guards. We'll continue our assault from there once we have the gates opened for us by Inoy's taskforce," Hyperion replied.

"And if they aren't?" Ashlynn continued.

"Then we hijack one of the artillery batteries the Sith have fortified and we blow the gates to hell. Either way, we're not giving Grandpa Crassus the luxury of time to begin feeding on Nogatan's artifacts and life energies," Hyperion countered back with ease. Ashlynn had no more questions for him and when he turned back to strategizing, he concluded with one last little note.

"While the droids engage the artillery batteries, we should have our biologicals hijack the other batteries and destroy any others that could flank us. From there, they'll help us with destroying the other rings and disable palace defenses before we make our assault on the gates. The minute they're opened, we're going in and we're wiping out every last trace of the Sith that we can get our hands on or smuggling what can't be destroyed to Coruscant," Hyperion said. Dantius and Jace both nodded with Ashlynn crossing her arms in reluctance at the idea of listening to Hyperion but ultimately conceded, still carrying a torch for Dantius. When they voted to initiate the plan that Hyperion had devised they moved to battle positions just in time to come out of hyperspace and face overwhelming enemy forces.

"Our first task is getting them too focused on us to notice Inoy's deployment. Don't let up on them until Inoy has confirmed that he's breached the atmosphere then focus your attack on breaking us through," Hyperion said to Jace and Ashlynn. Dantius, meanwhile, prepared the first wave of ground forces that would be following Inoy planetside once the breach was created. But Hyperion summoned his daughter to join the conference room and when she did, he tossed her his yellow lightsaber which she caught with ease. "How'd you like to come with me and Dantius to see your great-grandpa put down forever?" he asked her.

"As long as I can join you and uncle Dantius in doing it, it'll be my genuine pleasure. Thanks for giving me a lightsaber, aunt Morgana was always so stingy with her blades," Morgause told him. _Let's hope that wasn't because of a lack of skill_ Hyperion thought quietly.

"Show me what you can do, run through Shii-Cho standard sequence of attacks real quick," he told her. When she did as she was instructed, igniting her blade to show off the results, he was impressed by the overall smoothness and elegance of her style. She looked like she was every bit the mistress of the second and third forms that her aunt had been in life.

"Show me what you're most good at, what forms can you do the best?" Hyperion asked. She then surprised him with a combination of Ataru, Soresu, Niman, and Makashi with hints of Shien and Juyo in there as well. He couldn't see any reason, other than the one she gave (of losing two of her own blades) for her not being a capable warrior on the battlefield. With that out of the way, the two of them joined Dantius and Ashlynn, preparing for the battle that would determine the fate of the galaxy. And Crassus was at Nogatan's economic and political heart, making the same preparations to ensure his own immortality throughout the life age of the galaxy itself whilst his enemies made every effort they could to stop his eternity.


	14. Chapter Fourteen

**Chapter Fourteen**

On Nogatan's surface, Crassus decided he would find out what the artifact room was like in its arrangement of holocrons, amulets, and other trinkets then make upgrades as needed. Far better, he told his servants to make minor adjustments to an arrangement that existed before one's arrival than build from scratch up with the time that they had on their hands being so precious. "If this ceremony works, time will cease to be of consequence to all who follow the Dark Side," he had added to his butlers. Sure enough, there had been a need to create a circular space at the epicenter of the artifact room then go from there to have amulets and items of small power first so that the feeding could pick up speed at a controllable pace.

Now he understood why the will of the Force had waited so long to summon him back from the land of the dead to begin his climb to immortality. The death of Vitiate plunged an already timid war machine into such terror that each lord who dictated their will from the Dark Council stood and fell alone before a leader of strong centrality. In allegiance to the desires of the Dark Side, Crassus had risen back from being near completely obliterated to reach for the heights of near absolute godhood. But he wasn't a fool for his destiny could very well translate into failure and had made sure a colonial force had been sent to the world called Utapau, birthworld of Imperius, to begin the rebuilding. Doubly fortunate, should he have accepted the offer by now, would be the presence of Lord Scourge to greet this

Once again, Crassus would take his rightful place as King over all that was weaker and stupider than him and this time, it would last near indefinitely. The power of the ritual would cleanse him of any trace of death and would wipe away in one glorious stroke and he knew just how he would do it too. He would wait until the Jedi were planetside to begin the ceremony then he would keep them busy with enemy troops in order to ensure the ceremony was a rousing success. And if Hyperion had successfully defeated Morgana as part of him suspected he did from sensing Morgana's final oblivion then Hyperion would follow as well. Since he already held the Nogatan Dark Lords hostage as well, he would start by feeding on them once he had gone through the amulets and holocrons that currently surrounded him.

Then he would extend his will out to any life forms that were in the palace at the time, finding plant matter and similar energies on which to sustain its path along the way. "At last, mother," Crassus began, "I see why you told me to always wait for the perfect opportunity to strike without fear of retaliation. The Jedi are moving into intercept what they think will be the last traces of the Sith that need eradication before the galaxy will know peace in its people's collective lifetime. Each enemy I have ever had stands and falls alone like strains of wheat in the harvest season."

He paused for a moment to order the placement of holocrons at several critical intervals for the purpose of feeding on them once the amulets were no more. "I know, mother, the beast of the endtimes stirs within all who follow the Dark Side and so stirs within me as well. I know it wishes to rise up to destroy all that would threaten its existence by standing for compassion and right thinking but it will feed. And my ostracism from all the pleasures I have ever known shall come to an end. I will take my rightful place among the gods of the Force itself!" Crassus declared. Everything in place, he ordered his forces to begin readying themselves for the inevitable assault of the Republic.

"Prepare to fight for your lives against the Republic, stall them for time until I have completed the ritual. Once we have done so, I will use the full might of the Dark Side to cleanse this galaxy of all that the Jedi and their vaunted Republic stand for. For the glory of the Mortis Son! For the Dark Side," Crassus told them all. The soldiers gathered outside with the weakest ones mounting the artillery batteries to shoot down any significant armaments the Republic might have in counter to their defenses.

Once the Republic arrived with their own forces, the space battle began and Crassus knew he could sense Hyperion and Dantius even from beyond the fringes of the atmosphere. Doubtless, they wouldn't have come alone, likely with more than one other Jedi to aid them in destroying the other Sith Lords. The only problem that Crassus faced was the possibility of the Nogatan Dark Lords would revolt against their captors and weaken the number of lives he could take once he had consumed the vaulted artifacts. In fact, he most likely expected Hyperion to persuade those Dark Lords to betray their captors and revolt in order to help the Jedi eliminate resistance within the Palace.

Then again, the Dark Lords on Crassus' side were roughly equal or superior to the Nogatan ones and would therefore be victorious even if weakened by resistance. It wouldn't exactly be the most strategically wise move on his part if they did but it was the risk he needed to take if he wanted powerful Dark Lords to consume when the holocrons were done. As if thinking about it were a catalyst, he soon received reports that the Nogatan Dark Lords had understood what the ceremony was and decided they would fight for their lives with every ounce of being they had. "Put it down then resume normal positions, the Republic has arrived and will be taking down our forces unless we are unified as one powerful front. The Nogatan Dark Lords have proven that they care only for their own short-term ambitions and therefore shall observe the consequences of such small aspirations," Crassus ordered.

Within the hour, the other Dark Lords had been crippled of further resistance with the most powerful of them being destroyed to break the weaker ones into line. But Crassus knew they would fight with every last shred of power they possessed and did just that, weakening Crassus' palace defenses. Artillery batteries were still standing, thankfully, as were the armies that protected the palace from the Republic beyond palace grounds. He just hoped that the remaining Dark Lords on his side would be powerful enough to fight the Jedi that would approach if the rest of the army failed to stop the Republic soldiers.

In all, his forces were already in trouble and he found himself somewhat hoping that Scourge had taken his offer. Even if this backfired, there would still be an immortal to lead the Sith to the bright and brilliant future that the Emperor of the Dark Side had projected for his subordinates. But he was hoping, even more than that, that the ceremony would succeed as well.


	15. Chapter Fifteen

**Chapter Fifteen**

"Space forces are operating ahead of schedule, but they could use a little help out there," Jace told the Jedi.

"My starfighter is already fueled and ready to begin combat with the enemy, just simply direct me to the sector or sectors that need our help the most. I'll be there within the next ten standard minutes," Dantius replied.

"Think you can cover seven grounds at once? The Sith fleet is closing on the west flank and we've got three sectors that'll go critical unless something's done quickly. We got four sectors of our fleet that'll be broken down on our frontside unless decisive action is taken. I'm supplying coordinates," Jace told him.

"I'd be lucky if I could manage three of those," Dantius told him.

"Then the others and I will take the other four. Which is the more critical, Jace?" asked Hyperion.

"If we lose our west flank, we'll be routed before we even land for sure!" Jace answered quickly.

"Then Dantius, you take that. You're the better pilot out of all of us and you know you could get three sectors covered if you had to. Supply him with the coordinates for the sectors and have him establish an order in which to do it. Morgause, if you know how to fly a ship, you're coming with Ashlynn, Inoy, and myself to help the front end," Hyperion said.

"I once flew my aunt's ship through a four meter wide gap without scratching the shuttle even once. Under the stress of combat too, if that helps," Morgause said. Hyperion nodded and asked Jace to get him and her starfighters they could use as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Inoy and Ashlynn fueled theirs to do their parts, deciding which sectors they would help clear with the abilities of piloting they possessed.

"We need our targets, now!" Hyperion said when Inoy and Ashlynn had left.

"I've supplied the necessary information for both the remaining sectors into both your comlinks for you to decide which ones you're taking. Look over them on the way to your starfighters. Hyperion, you taking starfighter number L75-32LX and Morgause, you're taking L75-33LX into the battle," Jace said, supplying them the necessary information. Father and daughter raced to their starfighters at that point, eager to join the fray of battle and help the Republic break through the enemy lines. On the way, Hyperion told her to help the sector in greatest proximity to Inoy's that he could help guide her through the systems of the starfighter she was taking once they were out there.

"Unlike him, I'm not gonna have time to talk to you about systems once I start attacking my sector," Hyperion warned her. Morgause nodded and commed Inoy to let him know she was going to reinforce his resolve at the next sector over from him. When Inoy commed back with confirmation that he accepted her help, father and daughter boarded their starfights (both of which were sleek and agile in design, similar to the starfighters Inoy and Ashlynn were using). Boarding their ships, Hyperion was quick to take off since his was ready first and he headed to the coordinates of the sector that he intended to help. When he arrived, he saw the problem that lied before him: a first-class dreadnaught was facing (at most) only resistance from some hammerheads and a second-class cruiser from the Republic fleet.

Comming the commander, he told him to pull back his main ships and half the starfighters to protect them on the way out while he went into deal with the dreadnaught. The lieutenant was in no hurry to disobey, relaying the news that Hyperion would be up against ion cannons if he went any closer than he already was. Hyperion had dealt with ion cannons before and he knew just how he was going to take out this cruiser, having read the blueprints as part of his duties as Emperor's Wrath. Possessing photographic memory, he flew not towards the flanks of the ship as the other starfighters had done but toward its prow, making sure the bridge was right before his face. A particularly vulnerable weakness of this type of dreadnaught was to destroy the communications array and knock out the bridge if one could during the first pass.

But what he was looking to do if he could was trick the starfighters defending the ship into following him to try and shoot him down, hence why he'd ordered half his friendlies to leave. When the Sith counterparts took the bait, Hyperion ordered all Republic starfighters to converge on them and take them down from behind before they had a chance to shoot Hyperion from the sky. "I want the hammerheads on their life support systems and the second-class cruiser on their engines, I'm gonna knock out their communications and destroy their bridge," Hyperion ordered.

"Copy that Hyperion, we are converging now, over!" replied the lieutenant, meanwhile the Republic starfighters dealt with their Sith equivalents and helped deal with their sensor array. Hyperion used his laser bolts to deal with the antennae of the communications and worked down to the base before the remaining gear exploded as he passed through the top of the flames on his way to the next target. Smiling, he was pleased to see he could still get the hang of flying a ship into battle as he waited until he was in range of good missile fire before leveling the bridge. He then checked on the ships to make sure the engines were being destroyed then ordered half the starfighters to shoot down the escape pods, forcing their Sith counterparts to focus on defense. With defense as their weakness, they'd be easier to shoot down and therefore, the Republic would have prisoners and fewer Sith resisting them further down the line.

When the engines went down, Hyperion confirmed that his sector was secured as were Inoy's and Ashlynn's. Jace then asked if the three of them could lend Dantius a hand in his sectors to which Hyperion had a prompt reply. "Inoy, Ashlynn, go help out my brother. I'm going to check in my daughter," he said to which both Jedi commed their agreement.

Meanwhile, Hyperion turned his ship around to his daughter's sector and decided to see if she needed any aid at all. Fortunately, when he arrived, she didn't need any aid but had just taken it slow due to that sector being one of the most heavily hampered. That said, when she completed her part, it was the most critical to Republic forces breaking on through the Sith ranks to get planetside and stop Crassus from performing the ritual of immortality on the populace below.


	16. Chapter Sixteen

**Chapter Sixteen**

Whilst the Sith fleet was being torn apart by the Jedi and Republic forces, Lord Scourge was charting the hyperspace route out to Utapau. Amongst the worlds that the Sith "Emperor" had told him were the most likely, he deduced Utapau from the fact that the one called Algethiius was destroyed and it was in the Unknown Regions, too far for a practical colonial force. The other systems that were in Known Space either belonged to the Hutts, the Republic, or were close enough to where Sith activity could be easily reported by either one. Aside from the confirmation the Emperor gave him silently, Utapau was the only one that was in a single hyperspace jump of Republic Space, was not known as a Sith world, and was suitable.

 _This one has picked a magnificent location to begin the rejuvenation of the Empire_ Scourge thought. And indeed he had as Utapau was filled with sinkholes deep enough to support entire networks of underground caverns wide enough for anyone to disperse into the heart of the planet itself and never come back. It was perfect for ambushing enemies ill-equipped for night vision fighting and, most important, the caverns probably opened up to dozens more tunnels that allowed an ambush to commence. One could spend a lifetime helping the Empire recover in the darkness of the caverns without ever emerging to meet or greet any Jedi at all. More important, the people respected strength and the Sith would need their ranks replenished as quickly as possible.

When Scourge finally arrived, he saw that the ruling class, the Pau'ans had plenty in their ranks who would provide for fearsome soldiering someday. Combined with a lifespan of seven centuries, a Pau'an who trained ten pupils per year could train many tens of thousands before their life ended. Keeping the chain going, those ten that they trained could each train ten more, bolstering the Sith army into the millions. The Sith would have what they needed to launch another attack against the Republic and even better was that there would be different techniques to it this time. Utapau, Scourge observed, had more in the way of phrik alloy ore than any other planet he had come across in his tenure within and outside the Empire.

The alloy could easily be made into the shields he observed the natives wielding into their warfare as well as the blades, blasters, and body armor of soldiers. Those who ascended the ranks of the Imperial military would get the blades and blasters, having earned the right to them, while the common man wielded more destructible weapons. Doubtless, there would be those among the Sith who needed lightsabers and when that time came, he could also order phrik alloy integrated into the hilts so that the Jedi could not destroy the weapons of their mortal enemies. Most likely, the immortal Emperor who had beseeched his help had this in mind when he encouraged Scourge to consider taking his place if the reports confirmed his passing. Scourge smiled, respecting the man and almost wishing he didn't perish in the ritual though he knew the grim ramifications of his success from seeing Vitiate's power firsthand.

Still, he also saw the other reason that he was needed whether or not the current Emperor succeeded in his ambitions. He was one of the last surviving Sith Purebloods that was neither dead nor living out their days in a Republic holding cell. It would only take about twenty more deaths before the Pureblood species could not longer be sustained without heavy inbreeding and when those twenty had intermingled themselves in the bloodlines of the others, then what? Very soon, he would be all that was left of a dying species, excluding the enchanted Massassi who had no need of such things as long as they stood guard at the various temples they were charged with.

He shuddered to think of what he would see if he didn't order the prominent extermination of the rest of his species upon becoming Emperor. But how to do that without tainting his reign in the blood of his own kin, if distant kin? The only way out he saw was to order every last Pureblood besides himself to go and reinforce the Sith initiative at Nogatan and let the Jedi do the exterminating. On the exterior, he had to make it appear like they were running off to disobey the orders of their liege to reinforce him at Nogatan. This extermination would need guile, cunning, and deceit (all the traits of the Sith he didn't normally profess himself good at).

Then it occurred to him that he didn't even have to think about that at all. Sending reinforcements of any type would give success to the mission and if he said that the Emperor had called for them, he could persuade all Purebloods to leave the system and give their all to the fight. They'd be walking into a suicide yes but they would do so in a manner that aided the vendetta of the Sith. Or did he have to send them on the mission for that purpose? Suppose he wanted to stop the Emperor from becoming immortal? As he looked out to the remnants of the Sith, he counted about twenty-five thousand remaining Purebloods, an adequate force to send in reinforcement... or to help the Republic.

By the legalities of the Empire, the Emperor was banned from performing the ritual of immortality on themselves or any Sith since the abuse of power allowed by Vitiate in his reign. If he turned over the proof he had dug up, including a recorded confession from Lord Crassus, he could legally justify an expedition to help the Republic end him and the extermination of his species. He would deal a mercy killing to his species _and_ stop another immortal from arising to rule the Sith beside himself, he who _could_ be beaten as long as someone was strong enough. With the plans of the would-be immortal in his hand, he would lead the Sith to an even grander time than had been noted in the days of Lord Vitiate.

 _Looks like you get your wish of all immortals being killed off, Nyriss. Hope you're happy_ Scourge taunted silently. Nyriss had been a coward as had the rest of the Dark Council of her day, preferring to pawn off their rivals as 'sacrifices' to a higher cause to taking any decisive action. Perhaps they would have brought the Empire to ruination if they had succeeded but it would be the kind of ruination the Sith would inevitably rebuild from where the Jedi had more thoroughly destroyed them than they ever had in the Great Hyperspace War. So it was that he announced his hold on the throne by decree of the current Emperor and vowed that he would do whatever he needed to in order to ensure the Sith returned to a golden age while he ruled.

Yes, he had been granted immortality in return for busting the plot of Nyriss and Revan but he vowed to use it only for the good of the Sith and could be defeated by a worthy foe. That was what he told them before then asking the Sith Purebloods to gather for a special mission. As his first act, he was to enforce the law against Vitiate's ceremony by sending a Pureblood taskforce to help the Republic stop him by putting an end to the forces still loyal to him. Once his destruction was assured, they were then to turn their guns on the Jedi and fight to the last man. This way Scourge would ensure the mercy killing of his species and that his 'predecessor' fell in accordance with Sith legalities.

Meantime, he ordered any remaining texts on Vitiate to be either sealed or destroyed. Instructions for the ceremony were to be burned so it might never be performed again and even powers like Force Drain and Essence Transfer were to be kept under guard until further notice. The knowledge was to be released only when there was assurance that they would not be performed again anytime in the near future. At that time, education into their ramifications, their effects, and their benefits was to be provided as part of the curriculum for all ascending Lords. Vitiate's ceremony, however, would only be known to him and he would carry that knowledge with him to the grave.

And when the Pureblood force left Utapau to ensure the legalities of the Sith were upheld, he turned his sights on rebuilding the Empire of his childhood. First would be the subjugation of Utapau's ruling class to the Sith initiative and through them the rest of the populace. Next would be the active harvesting of necessary materials to forge armor, weapons, and ships for the fleet. After that would be the recruitment of people who would use the materials, forge them, clean and maintain them throughout the rejuvenation of the Sith. Last would be the time to begin looking for Force-sensitives capable of joining the Sith initiative and becoming the new Dark Lords for a whole new generation.

He would also need to restructure the government so that anyone with merit, regardless of gender or species, could ascend the ranks allowable by their connection to the Force. Those with promise would be allowed training in the Dark Side if they wielded the power within them. Even those who didn't wield the connection that showed talent should be allowed to attain the rank that their talent deserved them along with their competence. If the Sith were going to again be a force to be reckoned with, there were going to be need serious reformations. By no means would the Sith be democratic, as allowing the mobs to vote was a sign of weakness and allowed for rulership by the stupidities and dregs of the citizenry.

But a meritocratic monarchy would be the most essential getup the Sith could utilize in a time where Vitiate's plans had fallen apart with no contingencies in place. Not any that hadn't fallen down to either the Eternal Alliance or the Republic in the wake of the Alliance's downfall. The Sith, in addition to that, would also need a more integrated spy network, capable of relaying the news of the Republic's status in real time to the Imperial armada that was to come. There was a lot to do and fortunately for the immortal former Emperor's Wrath, he had plenty of time in which to do it. _I will undo what you have wrought upon the Sith and then I will join you in the grave to partake in punishing you myself, Vitiate. For Revan, for everyone that fought to beat you_ Scourge vowed silently as he began the task of the Sith Empire's ultimate salvation.


	17. Chapter Seventeen

**Chapter Seventeen**

As Scourge began the process of rebuilding the Sith without the would-be immortal emperor, the forces of the Republic had broken through the atmosphere of Nogatan. Inoy's forces had landed in one of the first breakthroughs the Republic had made. That said, they had not made significant headway until Hyperion, Morgause, and the Jedi had run their course of aid to the fleet. From there, it was a simple matter to merely wedge through the remnants of the fleet and land forces ready for deployment at the furthest point possible from the planet. This way formations had time to form before they were thrust into the heart of the conflict to end the war against the Sith for good.

Hyperion and Morgause led the formations that did not face down the rings of defense that Crassus had formed around the palace. Inoy's aquatic force had dealt with the defenses at the moats and then flooded them with enough rubble to ensure there was no leaving for the Sith within. They then rounded their way back and helped destroy the foundations for half of each ring of the forces that held Hyperion's advance in check. Dantius, meanwhile, joined Ashlynn in providing the ring battalions something to focus on, spreading the manpower of the Sith thinly across their sectors until the weakest point was revealed for Inoy to exploit. From there, Hyperion and Morgause's forces march through the openings, heading for the entrance to the palace before waiting on Dantius and Ashlynn to deal with the remaining palace turrets.

Ashlynn would also use her portion of battalions to scare off any reinforcements that might come. Jace made sure the remaining space defenses and secured the planet for the Republic just in time for a force of twenty-five thousand emerged and began bombarding the palace itself. The Palace Guards were soon spread thinly enough for Dantius and Ashlynn to create the opening Hyperion and Morgause needed to march upon the palace to end this war. "For some reason, this new batch of Sith ships is firing upon the palace. Have they been ordered to stop the ritual and help us out?" Morgause asked when the ships first came in.

"Crassus must have called up a contingency plan for someone to rule in his place if he failed in the ritual. My guess is his choice of successor wanted to make sure that happened so he could hold onto power," Hyperion answered.

"But where would there even be a force sizable enough to be ruled over? Aren't we destroying what remains?" Morgause inquired.

"If I tell you, you have to swear yourself to secrecy from even your uncle. Understand?" Hyperion replied to his daughter, when she nodded, deflected a few bolts with her lightsaber, then turned back to him he continued. "Crassus sent a planetary force to a destination I don't know of to begin the secret rebuilding of the Sith. But we can't tell the Jedi because as long as they refuse to explore and understand the Dark Side, the Force needs the Sith for balance. It's the only way that too much Light doesn't rule over the galaxy," Hyperion explained a moment later.

"I understand," Morgause said to him. Then they both focused on deflecting bolts, Hyperion with his shield and Morgause with her lightsaber. When they were on the steps to the palace gates, Hyperion commed for Inoy, Dantius, and Ashlynn to join them on the march.

"It is time we ended this as one unit, one unison of Force-sensitives eager to put an end to a greater threat. Plus I think your niece would love to fight for your side for a change instead of just fighting with her dad," Hyperion commed to his brother. Morgause backhanded her father's arm in a friendly manner, a smile lighting her face which incited a chuckle from the older man.

"Ashlynn and I are already en route. ETA, forty-five seconds. Inoy?" Dantius asked.

"I was circling back around the palace as soon as I finished the last ring just for such a request as this. ETA, thirty standard seconds. Keep your forces ready to go on the attack in the meantime," Inoy replied. Hyperion then decided to have his demolition crew bring down the palace while the rest of the forces kept any reinforcements at bay. That was when Hyperion decided to unclip his thermal detonator bag, his slugthrower pistols, and his shuriken case. Inoy arrived just in time to see the demolition crew activate their explosives and the other Jedi arrived in time to see those explosives take the doors apart.

"Show no mercy, soldiers! For you will receive none in that palace!" Hyperion exclaimed as the troopers charged in. Dantius and the Jedi didn't much care for that slogan but ignited their lightsabers for what was inside. While the common soldiery dealt with their Sith equivalents, Hyperion and the quad of Force-sensitives behind him scoured the first floor for a way up to Crassus.

As soon as they had entered the palace, after all, the quintet could feel Crassus' powers already beginning to increase. The ritual was about to begin and if they didn't hurry, they would all become the food for Crassus' appetite, sacrificed in the name of ensuring artificial eternity. So Hyperion didn't bother in wasting time and instead, threw thermal detonators to break up the ranks of the Sith Lords approaching them then used shurikens and throwing knives to conquer. He also emptied his slugthrower pistols upon them, killing many more than he had with his other projectiles before turning to his last remaining weapons.

While his daughter and the Jedi were able to kill the acolytes and apprentices with ease, Hyperion shot his spear into the chest of a master before he could react and hanged another by the neck with the whip. When a Sith Lord wielding two lightsabers was about to strike down both Dantius and Morgause, Hyperion shot out his wrist blade and cut the human's brain stem. In seconds, the man's vital systems shut down and he fell on his face before he could even register what had hit him. With only the ax remaining, Hyperion entered a code that programmed the shield to be able turn into a series of projectile blades that could impale any enemy if folded.

The programming would take effect in seconds if he needed it to but the only problem was that once he did it, he would have no shield. So he wanted to be careful about that and a good thing too because they ascended to the top, a motion sensor chain gun went off forcing the quintet to take cover except for Hyperion. Hyperion, on the other hand, unfolded the shield and absorbed the bolts though he was unable to do anything, not without using Force Rage at any rate.


	18. Chapter Eighteen

**Chapter Eighteen**

Hyperion was pinned down by the chain gun's fire, unable to advance forward but not being pushed back by the impact force of the bolts. That was when he looked deep within himself, concentrated on gathering his power together for one final run of Force Rage. With a final shout, he gave into the Rage and marched forward without feeling the impact force of any of the bolts. Morgause and the other Jedi ducked behind Hyperion, waiting for the right opportunity to destroy the gun and that was assuming Hyperion didn't do it himself. The quad was ready with their lightsabers but Hyperion pushed the shield forward and swatted the business end of the chain gun aside, destroying it with his lightsaber.

After that, his Rage subsided and when it did, he deactivated the lightsaber, holsted the hilt and unclipped the ax for another Sith Lord. It didn't take long for him to find the man that he was going to use it on although he did have to use the Rage against four more turrets before he reached this Sith Lord. Even so, he was still formidable enough and killed the man before he could get any battle in. He did this by swinging the shorter blade of his ax into the space between his navel and groin, giving Hyperion enough time to spin around and position himself in a manner where yanking it out wouldn't be difficult.

From there, he swung across so that he could bang the top of the ax against the man's head, bringing him down on his face. Then Hyperion raised the ax and delivered a chop to the back of his skull's dome killing him within seconds as Hyperion yanked the ax back out. Another Sith Lord tried to slice Hyperion in two but Hyperion shot out one of the sections of his shield into the man's face, landing it between the Sith Pureblood's eyes. Then he shot seven more projectiles into the ranks of the Sith Lords approaching, fatally hitting each one.

With just the ax left, he intercepted one Sith Lord with the top of his ax and then swung over to chop down to the shoulder of the man, an explosion of blood erupting from the victim. At this point, they were closing on Crassus' chamber, compelling Hyperion to free his ax then throw it at a Sith Lord who was putting his daughter on the defense. Dantius, meanwhile, cut the door to Crassus' chambers open so that the quintet could enter and end the threat that Crassus presented. The closer they edged towards the chamber, the darker the presence of Crassus grew like a void drawing in all light, life, and warmth into its maw to be devoured for its expansion through the depths of space. "Do you feel it?" Dantius asked, nauseated visibly as were Inoy and Ashlynn.

Morgause felt some of the effects as well but only because her connection to the Dark Side was weaker than her father's. "Stay here, I will handle this," Hyperion said. He then unclipped his lightsaber from his chest strap and ignited its amethyst blade. Before he went in, he heard his daughter call over his shoulder, advising him to be careful inside the chamber. Dantius also wished for the Force to be with him to which he thanked them both and stepped through the door.

 _I don't understand, I should have the weakest resistance to the pull of Crassus' power. Why do I have the strongest?_ he asked himself silently. He felt some ill effects yes but largely in his head and even then, not enough to disrupt his concentration. Edging closer and closer to what he sensed to be the center, his blade began to look and feel faint, distant. As if his spirit were already discorporated and being pulled into the void, as if even the colors were being sucked dry and used to feed the appetite for immortality that Crassus had come to possess.

But Hyperion didn't give up, instead anchoring himself on his need to save his daughter and foster son from the evils of the Dark Side. He needed to end this for his brother, for Menelaus, for Morgause, for everyone who had ever cared about him only to fall to his own primal darkness. His parents, his former friends, all these people needed the solace of knowing that their deaths had not been in vain. But as he edged closer, he felt the pull of Crassus' power calling him over to be consumed by the man himself so that he could fuel his eternity. However, Hyperion also knew that all he needed was to interrupt Crassus' concentration for even a moment and it was all over for him.

Hyperion felt the tug literally begin to lift him off his feet as if forcing him to accept a destiny as some twisted sacrifice to his grandfather's appetite. At first, Hyperion tried to resist, tried to stop the tug from taking him across until he realized something about it. The tug was pulling him in the direction where Crassus' chest would most likely be as the ceremony required him to be facing the door to emerge as a god when it was done. Looking back, he could see the most faint light of the door as the darkness consumed even his ability to see the world outside the room. Dimension, texture, smell, feeling, even the ability to see anything other than pitch black was becoming impossible as the ceremony swallowed up first the room then threatened to swallow all things outside it.

He smiled and gave a chuckle at the epiphany of what he had to do in order to stop his grandfather now. " _Welcome, Hyperion! You are just in time to be the first life I consume,_ " he heard a disembodied voice say. He recognized it as his grandfather's even as he fought to hold onto his footing, even plunging his lightsaber into the floor behind him so that he could avoid being consumed at first. Grinning from end to end, Hyperion decided that for once, he was not going to resist the tug anymore.

He deactivated his blade and let the tug take him, twirling the business end of his lightsaber so that it faced ahead of him. Then he positioned himself as if he were diving into a swimming pool then ignited his lightsaber so that he could plunge his blade into a part of his body that was not involved with the ritual. He dove forward faster than he had ever done on a bout of Force Speed and positioned his lightsaber just beneath a white and red light he saw at Crassus' heart. All he needed was to complete a stab and disrupt the ritual for just a little bit, disrupt Crassus' concentration to end this debacle.

Seconds later, his blade made contact, slicing through the robes, flesh, blood, and bone of his target until it burst forth through his back. That was when Hyperion planted his feet firmly on the ground next to Crassus' knees and stood erect. The light dissipated when he landed his blow, leading him to no longer feel the tug of the ritual and even the color, texture, and warmth of the room seemed to return. But Crassus' eyes did not fly open nor did the man show any visible reaction towards being gutted like a fish. Hyperion was beginning to wonder if he had been too late in his stabbing, perhaps he had failed to ensure a disruption of Crassus' concentration.

But that was when his hopes came alive once more as Crassus' eyes flew wide open with abject horror and shock. "What have you done to me, grandson?" Crassus demanded at once. Hyperion grinned from end to end and deactivated his lightsaber so that Crassus could feel the ill effects of the stabbing.

"All I need is just one moment of disruption, one moment where your concentration comes to an end. And look what has just happened old man, you are done!" Hyperion growled. Crassus looked down to his gut with horror as he realized that Hyperion was right though he did make things worse for himself. He lashed out with what power he was able to consume and electrocuted Hyperion in a storm of Force Lightning that sent him flying out the room. Hyperion landed in a heap, alive but barely though the same could soon not be said for Lord Crassus.

As he realized his failure with mounting fright, he noticed the power that he had accumulated within him gathering inwards. "No, I can still complete the ritual with or without this wound!" Crassus exclaimed but even the Jedi knew the falsity of that claim. Dantius, Morgause, the other Jedi, and a recovering Hyperion entered to watch the end of the man who had tormented all their lives and nearly brought ruin and death to the galaxy on two occasions. Crassus rose to try and deal with the intruders but that was when a red-white fire enveloped him, red lightning shooting from his hands and arms as he fought desperately to hold onto his life.

He cried out in agony as the five other Force-sensitives sensed his first his newfound power draining. "No, I cannot be failing this ritual! I will kill you, I will kill you all!" Crassus said as he tried to conjure a storm of lightning that could do them in. That said, the storm merely backlashed in on itself and drained him even faster. Around them, the quintet noticed that he had successfully consumed the artifacts of the Dark Side that had once made up Nogatan's entire catalogue, informing them that his death would take a little time to come.

"If I am going, I'm taking one of you with me!" Crassus finally shouted. That was when he unleashed a wave of Drain Life power upon the quintet, trying to snag somebody to save himself. The Jedi had managed to dodge it but Morgause was nearly set upon by the wave though she was pushed aside. As her father, her protector, Hyperion pushed her out of the way and took on the blast himself. But even the Drain Life that Crassus was able to successfully perform upon Hyperion wasn't enough to save himself from the destruction that was inevitable.

As soon as the power consumed the life force extracted from Hyperion, it returned itself on the last of Crassus' power then obliterated the power in his soul. Whilst his corporeal body turned to dust as the Jedi watched, his soul was literally shredded into hundreds of pieces by the power and scattered across creation. Only when the cloths of Lord Imperius fell to the ground as silent testimony to the power of the botched ritual did the Jedi finally sense its presence leave forever along with Crassus'. Morgause, meanwhile, turned her attention to her ailing father.


	19. Chapter Nineteen

**Chapter Nineteen**

Morgause held her father's head on her arm and his back against her lap. "Please Daddy, stay with me," she begged, tears welling up from her eyes and her voice stifled by sadness. Dantius and the others gathered round to see Hyperion for the last time in case this was the end. Medically speaking, there was nothing any of them could do to save him and something gave even Dantius the impression that he wasn't looking for that anymore. Then again, medically speaking there would be nothing wrong with him if they were to subject him to a battery of diagnostic tests to find out.

So it was that Hyperion began to utter his last words to his beloved daughter, the child of his advances on Patricia. "Are you safe? Are you alright?" he asked in a hushed voice. She nodded and he stroked her left temple as he spoke again. "Then my purpose is complete," he said to her.

"Please, don't go father! Don't go! Uncle Dantius, you're a Jedi, can't you heal him?" Morgause begged. Dantius silently shrugged, saying that he didn't know if he could heal the damage of Drain Life even if he wanted to.

"Do not begrudge your uncle if he cannot heal me. He already gave me my chance for redemption or else we wouldn't have met," Hyperion whispered to her, bringing his hand down her cheek. She looked up at Dantius who nodded admission that he had been the reason that Hyperion was where he was to begin with.

"Originally, I offered him the mission in return for the expungement of his records with the Republic and associated allies. A deal's a deal but now it doesn't look like he'll be needing the other part where he gets enough credits to live his life freely without need to work again. I can't say what the Hutts still think of him or for that matter, what the Sith would think. Only that records of him were likely deleted when we raided Dathomir and Balmorra to destroy or seal away everything they have away from common use. Any traces we missed will be too miniscule for them to use," Dantius told her.

"I took the mission in order to pursue a chance of peace in this lifetime. Lo and behold that I would actually acquire it by meeting you. You have grown into such a beautiful woman with a powerful connection to the Force, Morgause," Hyperion said, coughing up some of his last life.

"Don't speak, Daddy. We'll get you some medical help and you're going to be alright," she promised.

"At what price? Hooked up to a machine even to breathe, much less eat or drink? No, this is better, in the arms of someone I love most in life. I just wish I could've seen your brother, one last time," Hyperion replied. Morgause hugged his head close and it was then that Inoy offered a confession.

"If I may, Hyperion. When Menelaus and I first came to Dathomir to disperse his mother's ashes, I discovered something. After I killed a Sith acolyte, I sensed the Force come alive in your son as if he were a Wound in the Force like Meetra Surik and Lord Nihilus. Guess Verrin succeeded in his experiment to create such a wound though he didn't get the chance to turn it into a weapon for the Sith. Yet the Jedi could turn it into a harbinger of justice for the Light, if given the chance," Inoy confessed.

Hyperion looked galvanized to hear the news that his son had proven himself Force-sensitive after the years he spent raising him as his own. Turning to Morgause, he used what strength he had to put in a request. "Daughter dearest, promise... promise me that you will become a Jedi and you will train your brother as your Padawan learner," Hyperion asked. Morgause nodded and said that she promised to become a Jedi and find her foster brother that he might be trained as her Padawan learner. Dantius agreed with it as well and with good reason: once Morgause completed her Jedi training, she would have the most well-rounded understanding of the Force and be the most capable of training her foster brother.

"And I will see to it that she is assigned a kind and understanding Master for the duration of her training. I know just the person who can help her integrate her training from Morgana into becoming a tool for the Light. You have my word, brother, that Morgause will be the best Knight that Menelaus could ask for in training him," Dantius told him. Hyperion smiled gently and asked his daughter one more thing that was a little more understandable this time.

"Lay my head down to the ground please, I want to embrace my end as a warrior should," he asked her. She nodded, not bothering to question her father's request as she laid his head to rest then put his lightsaber to his chest. He wrapped his hands around it and she let him go so that he could do so, his legs brought together so that he could ready himself for his end. "I love you, my child," he said. The words stung his daughter who let her head sink in grieving for Hyperion as she and Dantius both sensed the last breath of life leave him behind as he became one with the Force.

"Jace, can we get a squad to raze the Palace to the ground as soon as we're out. Hyperion's dead and I want a funeral fit for a king. I'll signal you when we have exited the Palace," Dantius said. There was no more resistance when they came back down the Palace steps, their soldiers having seen off the last of any potential resistance they could've faced. When they emerged from the Palace, Dantius decided to prepare a signal for sendout when they reached the last stairs of the establishment then watched as Jace's fighters came in to do the job he'd asked of them. As they burned down the palace and cremated Hyperion, Dantius turned to his niece with an important question.

"You made no effort to recover your father's lightsaber for later use. Why?" he asked.

"Aunt Morgana once told me the Jedi say that their members have to let go of all ties to their past, including trinkets and souvenirs. If I had taken my father's lightsaber, I'd not only be violating his desire to die a warrior's death but wouldn't I also be holding onto the past? All I want to have of my father is the memory, the memory of the man who loved me, who laid down his life for me, and even offered it when I wanted revenge for my mother," Morgause told him. _You are more ready to be a Jedi than you realize, Morgause: I'm proud of you_ Dantius thought.


	20. Chapter Twenty

**Chapter Twenty**

As the war against the Sith was wrapping up, Hyperion emerged from his corporeal shell and found himself standing before a shining gold gate with a bright white light behind it. The light was so intense that he could've sworn he felt like he was approaching a sun. "Where am I?" he asked.

" _You have fought for the cause of the Light, in spite of your dark origins, with courage and selflessness. In the most critical hour, you chose to give your life for your child and helped the Guardians of the Netherworld retrieve a spirit who had evaded them for sixty years. You have made right the wrongs of your youth by raising a child that wasn't your own and aiding the one who was in her time of need. Welcome, Hyperion Corialanus Algethii to the paradise known to souls such as you,_ " said a female voice who called from behind the gates. As she spoke, the gates swung open and within called all the souls of those who were Force-sensitive that had done good or selflessly sacrificed their all to the Light.

He saw Revan, of all people, and his wife along with Meetra Surik and her friend Visas Marr who gave her life to stopping Lord Nihilus. Hyperion also saw figures who had died in the war, serving as champions of the Light and doing good deeds for those who went hungry because of the battle between Jedi and Sith. "I don't understand, I did such horrible things in my youth. How could all that be wiped away?" Hyperion asked.

" _You look at your deeds and think of yourself a monster. But even a monster can learn to understand love and the duties of a father which is precisely what you have done. The Jedi speak of non-attachment and while that serves some well, the most powerful denizens you see here were those who learned that love can be an emboldening emotion. Join the souls of those who gave their all to the balance of the Force as you have done,_ " said the female voice that greeted him. As it spoke, it also manifested a physical form, that of a woman with glowing skin, green hair, and white robes with gold rims on the ends of the sleeves and robes.

" _I am the Daughter of Mortis, the one who is the Light. My brother will be punishing your grandfather throughout the millennium, you have my word on that,_ " she added a moment later. He looked around to the glistening white and gold of the realm, the limitless food and water available to the inhabitants. Even Revan, who in life had been tormented for three centuries by Emperor Vitiate and had fallen under his spell after the Mandalorian Wars, wore a bright smile. Together with his wife and the family he had never had in life, Revan, Satele, and Avner wanted for nothing here.

" _The worse monsters than you or Revan are the ones being tormented in the realm of darkness my brother rules throughout the rest of time by will of the Guardians. Our Father has ensured that that is so. Come join us and know the peace you have longed for,_ " said the Daughter. Hyperion took another look back to where he had come from, seeing only the flames of the palace behind the quartet of the Jedi and his daughter walking away from the palace where he had fallen. There was no way he was going to get back to his body now, even if he had wanted to and something told him that he shouldn't have even tried anyway.

" _Perhaps we can help coax him, milady,_ " interjected a voice Hyperion hadn't heard for over forty years. He turned rapidly to see his mother and father looking down upon him, the former with bright, wavy red hair that reached her shoulder blades at longest strands. Her eyes shimmered like emeralds in their sockets hence where Dantius had likely gotten his eyes from. His father wore short hair, almost buzzed, and a thick beard that hid his chin, cheeks, and lips with the blue eyes that Hyperion knew he had carried throughout his life. " _Take my hand, love, and know your peace,_ " she asked him, extending a hand his way.

Hyperion extended a hand forward and as he did so, his armor shed off his body, breaking into millions of pieces like clay. The closer he got to grasping her, the more the mechanical parts of his right arms shed to reveal flesh and bone beneath. His beard shrank until his face was as clean and unshaven as a newborn baby and a full head of curly brown hair burst to existence on his head. The armor he wore in life was replaced with a beige toga with gold rims on the sleeves as well as a gold belt on the waist and rimming the ankles.

Sandals were strapped to his feet and his skin felt as fresh as he might have been when he was a child. When he felt her fingers wrap around his hand, he knew he had been restored the figure of his adolescence with the hair and lack of beard as well as a more trim body. Father, mother, and child ascended the steps and Hyperion watched the gates close behind him. He knew he would never be able to return to his daughter and adopted son but he knew they would have everything they needed to survive without him. With this knowledge stored, he turned his gaze to the paradise above and found that he didn't miss his old life at all.

No, he didn't have the battle scars he had developed from his years as a blade for hire, he didn't have the burns from when his grandfather electrocuted him, he didn't even have his emotional woes anymore. He never had to worry about going hungry and he never had to worry about getting fat whenever he overate. But the most important gift he had ever acquired from this paradise was the ability to see the mortal realm from pools in the paradise where other souls sometimes swam as well. In one, he saw a vision of someone who looked like Morgause but he knew it wasn't: it was a thousand years after she would've passed away of old age.

Good girl Hyperion thought with a chuckle, glad to see his lineage still somehow had lived on even if not through his brother as he once thought it would be. Never again did he have visions of the sins he committed while in the mortal realm and the past was obliterated to him as soon as he entered this place of eternal bliss and wonder. In time, others joined the ranks of the souls rewarded with this same peaceful existence and he never once thought to ask if there was a way back whether as a disembodied soul or in another corporeal shell. Several of the souls he met afterward even fought with new dynasties of Sith in life and compared notes to his own toppling of a Sith regime. But from time to time, Hyperion would gaze back to his daughter's life and wonder if she would die believing that he had done right by her, a question that went unanswered until she arrived to this same paradise and joined her father in unending blissful laughter.


	21. Chapter Twenty-One

**Chapter Twenty-One**

With Nogatan taken for the Republic, Dantius and his company that there was one last matter of business to take care of besides Morgause's inauguration to the Order. The data featuring the pathway to Nogatan had to be destroyed so that no one could reach the world ever again. An embargo would only encourage people to pursue it but destroying the data on where to find it would at least minimize the instances in which newcomers would find Nogatan. The artifacts that remained from Crassus' attempt to immortalize himself were either destroyed or packed for further sealing in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant.

The people were also to be given relief supplies such as foodstuffs, medicine, and whatever else they needed. With the fleet recovered from the fighting, they then prepared to destroy their own data on the coordinates to Nogatan. "Why destroy the coordinates? In a hundred years, would it really matter whether this world served the Sith or not?" Morgause asked.

"You ever been to Korriban, Ziost, or even Yavin 4? The Sith Lords who once ruled over them have been dead for thousands of years but their presence still dominates over those worlds. If you like, we can go there sometime and I can show you how those worlds feel just as there is a presence of the Light on Dantooine. You'll enjoy that world when you arrive there for your Jedi training," Dantius answered.

"Is that really necessary Dantius?" Ashlynn asked.

"We only need to encourage a desire to learn. Now that the Sith are destroyed, the Jedi must live in a day and age where the Order understands what gave rise to them in the first place. That doesn't mean exploring and agreeing with the principles of the Sith Lords by any means but it does mean knowing in full why they exist and how they can be beaten by their own tenets," Dantius answered. Ashlynn didn't argue the point further, not wanting to incite another joust with her former lover but she made her dissatisfaction clear.

"Besides, we gave my brother an adequate funeral and we've ensured that his peace is never disturbed again. It's time Morgause learned a little bit more about what corrupted him and why it had such a powerful hold over him until he was exiled to Ando Prime. From that information, she'll also be able to understand why those who oppose the darkness are more powerful than even my grandfather or Morgana could've hoped to be. As long as you and the others have the necessary preparations covered, that is," he added a moment later.

Jace assured him that the evacuation efforts and the declaration of an official end to the war would be underway soon. Once the Supreme Chancellor approved the motion, the war would be declared over and the festivities would doubtless ensure across Republic worlds. Meanwhile, Dantius and Morgause doubted they would find the kind of solace that the normal people would find in the end of the war. Both had only known the uncertainty of the clashes between Light and Dark, the ferocity of the Sith, and the corruptions of the Republic that had led to escalations. They had only known a Chancellor capable of becoming a dictator with the necessary war powers usually bestowed in order to counter the threat of the Dark Side across the galaxy.

"What is it like to face and resist the temptation of the Dark Side? To resist anger, to resist fear, any of those things?" Morgause asked. Dantius had known to expect this question but he was impressed with how immediately she came to asking it of her uncle for the first time. Fortunately, though he didn't consider himself gifted with words, he did know what he needed to say to teach her how to become a Jedi.

"In our code, the Jedi insist on their being no emotion only peace. This means no happiness, no joy, no sadness, no anger, none of that stuff. If you're an insectoid, I suppose that's easily enough done but if you're a human it's a living hell to resist the very things that make you human. But there are meditative trances you can undergo to learn how to channel your emotions productively. It's a shortcut but it's not like members of the Council haven't cheated in their adherence to the Light before," Dantius told her.

The comment brought a slight laugh to Morgause and Dantius asked for a shuttle to be ready for them when they arrived to the cruiser. Their first destination was Yavin 4, the world with the weakest tug from the Dark Side and from there, to Ziost and Korriban. Once they were finished, they intended to arrive to Dantooine to begin the training that Morgause would need to train Menelaus in the ways of the Force. Dantius would also need to find an adequate master who would teach her the ways of the Jedi while he and the Knights who'd accompanied him to Nogatan completed their own secret plans for the Sentience.

After all, Dantius believed in the Sentience's message of preventing corruption wherever it could be found. But he also saw how the search to defeat corruption could in turn corrupt his superiors and he needed to make sure that he and the others were on board with preparations to counter them if it was needed. And he had one person in mind, one who had already succeeded in training Inoy Llimetch to Knighthood and still had decades of life within her to train at least one more Padawan. As Morgause warmed up the shuttle at his request, Dantius found a private room to comm Master Aria Tethys about taking on another disciple. "Greetings Master Tethys, it is an honor to speak with you again," Dantius told her.

"The honor is all mine, Knight Octavian. How could I help with you today, my dear friend?" Tethys asked. Dantius knew she preferred not to mince words and went straight to the point with his newest request.

"How would you feel about taking another Padawan? I have a niece who lost her father but she has a gift for the Force that we have reason to believe will work best with another potential candidate for the Order. Due to my family ties, I cannot train her myself nor can anyone connected to me as extensively as Knight Llimetch or Knight Thorin," Dantius explained to her.

"As long as you can clear it with the Jedi Council, I would be more than honored to take on someone of your blood," Tethys said.

"Then I will comm you when we are en route to Dantooine. Please make sure the Council is prepared for the consideration of my niece training with you when I do," he replied, cutting transmission as soon as she bowed in acceptance.


	22. Chapter Twenty-Two

**Chapter Twenty-Two**

The leaders of the Sentience were carbon frozen as part of the effort to stop the corruption of the Republic but Dantius and his friends knew that wasn't enough. If they were to return at the point in their plan where their return was required without a contingency plan against their own corruption. So while Dantius toured the most powerful worlds affiliated with the Sith with his niece, Ashlynn and Inoy approached the Chancellor and the Grandmaster of the Order with their own request. They wanted to ask approval to have Dantius, Ashlynn, and Inoy carbon frozen as well as that if Mathes, Arek and the other leaders of the Sentience needed to be countered by people of experience similar to their own then they could be.

Needless to say, the Chancellor was more than a little reluctant about the idea of freezing Ashlynn, Dantius, and Inoy. "Absolutely not, I need people who can rebuild the Republic and warriors who can enforce and protect the peace to follow. If I freeze all the best of the Jedi Order, what hope will we have?" the Chancellor demanded.

"The hope you have is that you'll have three Jedi who can teach others to guard the Guardians when they are needed. You see, the Sentience's plans involve a number of things that the Republic citizenry would consider unethical yet necessary to the continuation of the Republic. By its design, it is meant to stop the corruptions of the Dark Side when and where perceived by any means necessary but what's to stop its members from being corrupted? Who's to say that honoring the Sentience's plans won't, in time, make them every bit as dangerous as the Sith especially without a contingent of Jedi who know their ways and can stop them? Dantius, Inoy, and I know the ways of the Sentience as well as their weaknesses which means that we're in the best position to recognize their movements and stop them anyway we can," Ashlynn explained.

"But the only way we can do that for sure is if we are in the fighting condition needed to stop them if they should re-emerge and turn out to be a source of corruption. They're the blade that is to be wielded in the darkness where no other can go but a shield is needed when that blade is doing too much damage. Besides, Dantius is working on a way that they can be legally removed from their positions by the Republic, perfectly justifying any physical force taken against them if we should have need it," Inoy added.

"You don't mean...?" the Chancellor began.

"Dantius has automated data systems that record each instance of the Sentience declaring a plan completed in their databanks within mere moments of them entering it. He didn't hack into their databanks but acquired Mathes' approval to be allowed to monitor the plans of the Sentience in return for helping them outside of the network. The terminals themselves are connected almost exclusively to Sentience channels for that reason and he can tell us how much time we'd have to stop the Sentience instantly, should they need stopping," Ashlynn told him.

"Don't you realize that data will implicate me in crimes against the citizenry?! If word of this were to leak, I would be barred from the office, perhaps even arrested for condoning their actions to start with and with my reelection already tenuous as it is!" the Chancellor informed them.

"That is a risk that we have to take if we are to make sure the Sentience is actually doing their job with as minimal endangerment to our citizens as possible. They've suffered through decades of war as it is and deserve some measure of peace before their lives end," Inoy replied.

"Plus the end of the war means it's time you started actually giving a kriff about the demands of your constituents rather than the demands of your bankers. Yes, you have war debts incurred and yes the citizenry will have to help you out but don't make it anymore difficult for them than it already is. Remind them that you were the Chancellor who ended the war, persuade the wealthy to pay the higher percentage of debts incurred for the first ten years, and another term is assured for you as long as this information never surfaces to the light," Ashlynn bluntly stated. The Chancellor looked like he wanted to say something back to her on her comment of caring about the people for a change but quickly gained his composure when he spoke again.

"Fine, I'll grant this request as long as you understand that all of you are only being frozen for ten years. I can't guarantee anything past the end of my term as Chancellor and only if I am re-elected again can I expect to approve you being frozen. Will that be sufficient?" the Chancellor asked.

"Should be, Dantius intends to ensure his niece is instructed in the ways of the Jedi by a good Master. The plan is for her to then instruct her foster brother in the ways of the Force so that his power can be used to stop the Sentience and other threats," Inoy answered. Ashlynn, who had become crude and blunt since being thrown into the war for the first time when the Vornu Crisis had yet to happen. She used to worry about etiquette whenever she was on missions but sometimes didn't hold on to her composure even when she was a Padawan under Lorn Kenau. As a Lorrdian, it was absolutely essential and though her skills of body language understanding were beyond even most of her people, she no longer cared for how her words affected them (by and large).

"And what is this boy's power, might I ask?" the Chancellor asked.

"Do you know the story of Meetra Surik? He's got her power," Ashlynn snapped quickly. Inoy elbowed her lightly but she shrugged, the damage being done already if the Chancellor knew who Meetra Surik was. But his body language revealed to her that the name glazed over his mind and as such, they were safe.

"I know the name but nothing else. Must be quite something to have such special emphasis placed on that family," the Chancellor admitted.

"Morgause used to be Sith but defected to aid Hyperion and agreed to train with the Jedi in return for a drop of all charges. Fortunately, she hasn't committed any crimes that wouldn't be so dismissable thus we really caught her in the nick of time," Inoy admitted. The Chancellor gave up, raising his arms and shrugging his shoulders in concedement to their wishes.

"Then may the Force be with us. I hope for all our sakes that we never need to stop the Sentience or reveal any of their activities to the Republic. Dismissed," he said finally, the Jedi showing themselves out after bowing in respect to him.


	23. Chapter Twenty-Three

**Chapter Twenty-Three**

Dantius brought Morgause to the first of four worlds that he had put on his charts for Morgause. Each one was supposed to be darker and more twisted with the powers of evil than the last so that Morgause understood the true extent of how a Sith Lord's search for power could affect the galaxy for long periods of time. Yavin 4 was the first on his projection as the Republic had managed to secure a permanent foothold in the wake of the return of Vitiate to the galaxy. Ziost was claimed after the Sith were forced to abandon it and Korriban, the most recent addition, was still being met with pockets of resistance. The fourth world, however, would be one that had been forever tainted by Vitiate and his appetite for immortality.

Upon setting foot on Yavin 4, Dantius asked Morgause to describe to him what she felt. "There are... beacons. Beacons of black fire which call to me like a moth to a light: I know it's dangerous to me yet I am urged forward by my Sith training," she admitted. Dantius ensured that there was no way she could go forward, in part by restricting her to the immediate vicinity to their shuttle and occasional enforcement of this restriction.

"Millennia ago, a young Jedi named Exar Kun came to this world to explore the ancient knowledge of the Sith left behind. He discovered and took over the Massassi within the temples of this place, dominating them so that he could use them in his armies. When he was defeated, his physical body died but his spirit was tied to the temple in which he fell, his hope having been to free his identity and power from his body to wreak havoc on the cosmos. There is currently no way to destroy him, anymore than there is a way to eliminate the traces of the Sith Lord who seduced him known as Freedon Nadd," Dantius explained to her.

"It stinks of hate, anger, and destruction here. Did Kun get any followers with him? I mean, besides the Massassi," Morgause inquired.

"Do you know the story of Ulic Qel-Droma?" asked Dantius. She shook her head no and he told her that that would be the subject of their reading material while they traveled to their next destination. Ziost, a world consumed by Vitiate though less extensively than Nathema had been, was still a world of prominence in the Dark Side and still held much in the way of ancient evil. However, along the way, Morgause asked him the most critical question he had been expecting after he gave her the databank with the story of Qel-Droma.

"Do we truly need to go to other worlds after Ziost? I think I've seen enough to know why I should take the training of the Jedi into my own understanding of the Force. The Sith might have had the right idea about allowing the full extent of emotions to be felt but even the freedom of emotions is taken too far. They rely too much on the more passionate emotions for their own strength and think only to their own ambitions and desires. The Jedi may be wrong about suppressing emotions but at least they use their powers in service to a greater cause than themselves," Morgause confessed.

"And that is what I wanted you to understand before you could begin your training as a Jedi. It isn't that we Jedi cannot feel emotion but it is that we are often required to put their emotions aside to serve their duties to the greater galaxy and, usually, to the Republic itself. But a network of Jedi Sentinels known as the Sentience believes that the Jedi are limited by their alliance with the Republic in their struggle to suppress corruption throughout the galaxy," Dantius said.

"But you believe that unhinging the minds of the Sentience in their means will corrupt them as much as the enemies they intend to face down in the shadows. Therefore, you want to create a contingent that can stop them from completely unraveling what unity there is to be had in the galaxy with the war over," Morgause said. Dantius nodded and turned to her as he prepared to bring the ship out of hyperspace for the trip down to the surface of Ziost. Before they landed, he told her that she was finally understanding the true nature of the Dark Side on her own terms.

"You will become a grand Jedi Knight if it is taking you so little time to understand what it is the Order aspires to protect the citizenry from. Ultimately, we intend to save the people from themselves and the Sentience knows this which is precisely why we cannot let them back us into a contradiction that they know our Code can produce for us. You will be trained to mentor the one who will help us against the Sentience if they should ever turn into the very things they swore to destroy when they first took up arms against the Sith," Dantius confessed. He didn't tell her that his former master, Mathes Colunga, was calling the shots in the Sentience and it was Colunga's attempt at forming the Uriek Confederacy that worried him.

The failure of his attempt to create a balanced alliance that paid homage to the ancient Je'daii in its construction had left him largely unhinged. Though he accepted the offer to return to the Jedi Order and a pardon for his treason in return for serving the Republic as it needed him, Dantius' worry lied in the free rein he'd been given since. Would time reveal Mathes to truly be interested in stopping corruption or would it reveal that fanatic devotion to a vision of balance had consumed his every fiber to the point of madness? Kultram, his new right hand man, was already an unhinged and unbalanced mind without factoring the possibility that Mathes was possibly the same way now.

"I can already feel the intensity of the Dark Side here, it's stronger than it was on Yavin 4 yet the Sith Lords there were older. Why is that?" Morgause asked.

"Normally, you'd be right about the older spirits having a stronger Dark Side presence. But here, something unnatural happened, something so vile and despicable that even the Sith Empire rallied with the Republic to stop the threat its source became. This is the mark of the damage that Vitiate was willing to do in order to secure his immortality, to hold death off another century when the Hero of Tython had depleted him of much of his power in their first battle," Dantius told her. They stepped into nausea, dizziness, and an urge to vomit when they stepped out their ship and unto the scarred surface of Ziost which had been used in the same ritual which had consumed Nathema.

"By the Force... what is this?" Morgause asked, lurching over and falling to her knees.

"This is the true definition," Dantius told her, clutching his gut, "of oblivion."


	24. Chapter Twenty-Four

**Chapter Twenty-Four**

While Dantius was cutting his tour of Dark Side worlds a tad short, Ashlynn and Inoy were making the necessary preparations for their own freezing. It would take a few days and a little extra pay out of the wealth that Dantius had accumulated, particularly now that Morgause had placed her aunt's assets in a trust fund that included his own funding as well. Ideally, over the next ten years, their combined wealth would accumulate to so much that they could practically bankroll the Jedi Order themselves. This money would go toward paying for any allies that might help stop the Sentience as needed as well as pay off any mercenaries within the Sentience's ranks to turn the tide of any battle.

"I don't understand why Dantius never abandoned his attachment to credits when the Republic would've gladly compensated him for his troubles," Inoy admitted.

"Dantius was of the impression that if he held onto it and spent only what he needed to, he could make worthwhile investments that would advance the Jedi cause. Plus, he wouldn't need the stipend that all Jedi get which he instead had the Council channel towards humanitarian causes across the galaxy in the intervening years since he rejoined the Order. So far, it's lived up to the potential he saw in it and now with the wealth that Morgana accumulated and his general financial affluency (hailing from adoption by Muuns), we should see benefit the Order manyfold," Ashlynn told him. Inoy conceded that the wealth would indeed benefit the Jedi: with every credit of the trust fund going towards securing the Order's interests and needs, the Republic could focus on the task of helping their citizens rebuild in their all. As long as the trust fund information remained hidden from even the Council, the Jedi would benefit greatly from the proceeds in the intervening years.

Knowing this, Ashlynn commed Dantius to inform her that the Chancellor had approved of their motion to join the leaders of the Sentience in carbon freezing. "But the Chancellor has agreed only to let us be frozen for the remainder of the years that he has been allowed by the Senate. We'll be in there for the same ten years that he has put the Sentience under for while their plans move toward fulfillment. Meantime, we're going to need Morgause to put a serious lid on the trust fund unless the Council order that she donate every credit to the process of rebuilding the Republic and its people. With it, the Council won't even have to tax the wealthy more substantially than he's already going to need to for the Republic to remain afloat," she told him.

"Morgause has already signed a contract of silence, indicating that she will not speak of the trust fund and that only T7-A5 will have access to making deposits to Jedi accounts. But even then, he is programmed only to do it if Morgause approves the deposit in those accounts that the Order may afford the expense of rebuilding themselves without Republic aid. They'll also go a long way towards accelerating the demilitarization of the Order in preparation for its peacetime role as the guardians of justice across the stars," Dantius told her as he was traversing the hyperspace route to Coruscant.

"Should I apprise the Chancellor of Morgause's supervision of the trust fund?" asked Ashlynn.

"I already did before I set out with her to the other worlds. When I told him of the Sentience's leaders' need to be frozen, I originally told him that I was already going to bankroll their enterprises. I lied when I said they would need ever credit accumulated in a trust fund so that if he was somehow interrogated by a member of the Sentience, they wouldn't learn anything about it from him," Dantius explained.

"You lied to the Chancellor about the nature of the trust fund?" Ashlynn exclaimed.

"A necessary precaution against the Sentience stopping our attempts to put an end to their rampage if they end up being the next great threat with the Sith gone. Their message is guarding against corruption but we can never be entirely sure that they will not be corrupted in the process of serving their assigned duty. We need to place limits on their power wherever the Republic cannot, that is the nature of countermeasures like our carbon freezing ourselves and the trust fund that Morgause and I have together created. If we are going to put out the fire of the Sentience, we cannot do it with fire: we must be able to fight with water," Dantius explained to her.

"You've placed too much faith in your niece and too soon for this to be a healthy adventure between the two of you. Are you sure you are not blinded by your imperative to do right by your brother now that he has finally done right by you?" she replied.

"Morgause is much like her father in all of the right ways. She is resilient, she is powerful, she is ambitious, and she is patient and compassionate to a fault. Though brash and impulsive at times, she owes much more to the sins of youth (sins I recall you and I engaging in quite heavily, by the way) than to any part of her tutoring or her true nature. Besides, the fact she has sunk all of her inheritance from Morgana into this means that she is taking even greater risks than I am. Apparently, Morgana was my better by nearly four fold financially and I'm a multi-millionaire," Dantius countered.

"Let's hope the Council sees it that way, should the true nature of the trust fund ever come to light. You two are still taking a very dangerous risk, you most of all for all that you have asked the Chancellor to approve. And for what? We may never need to fight the Sentience for all we know, we may have done this for nothing!" she said.

"That's what I'm hoping but the instability of my former master leads me to wonder if his path will inevitably cross with the Dark Side once more. As it did when I served under him at Confederacy on Uriek.

"For all our sakes, I hope that the Council sees the light in your decision but with their influence and power throughout the war, we're all taking a very dangerous gamble here. Even I have sunk too far to return now that the carbon freezing motion has been approved. Has Morgause been assigned a Master who will understand her?" Ashlynn said.

"She will be assigned, by approval of the Council, to Inoy's former master Aria Tethys. Once training begins, she will be in good hands until we return from the carbon freezing to face down the Sentience if and as needed. No matter what, the Dark Side can never win," he said before cutting the transmission.


	25. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

"By the right of the Council, by the will of the Force, I dub Morgause Brilliante Algethii a Jedi Knight of the Republic. You may rise and join your new Padawan learner," declared the Grandmaster of the Council. While Morgause was stung with slight regret at the absence of her uncle and his colleagues, she also understood it was for the greater good of the galaxy. Besides, her Master was there and that was more than enough for her to be happy at the moment.

"We welcome Menelaus Algethii into the Jedi Order and eagerly await to see what will become of him. Teach him well as Tethys has taught you, Morgause. He will need it in the years to come," added another member of the Jedi Council that Morgause recognized as the Jedi High Master. Morgause would've said she would try but she knew she would likely have been told to do or do not because there was no try in the Jedi Order.

"I promise only that I will instruct Menelaus in accordance with the will of the Force. Menelaus, will you come to accept your Padawan braid now?" asked the Grandmaster. Menelaus stepped forth, kneeling before the Grandmaster and bowing his head as Morgause had done before her Padawan braid was lopped off ceremoniously by his silver blade. As the lightsabers of the Council deactivated and the lights of the room flickered back on the Grandmaster reached for a pouch where he produced a metal braid.

He placed it around one of Menelaus' budding horns with an adhesive sticking the magnet to his flesh as the artificial tendril wrapped around the bony protrusion. "Welcome Menelaus, son of Hyperion and adopted brother to Morgause. The Jedi Order embraces you with open arms and hopes that you will become a powerful and worthy addition as your uncle has done," said the aging Grandmaster moments later. With the ceremony over, everyone was dismissed like nothing had happened though Morgause and Menelaus talked a good long while about what was to come for them.

"What's it going to be now, sis? I mean, Master," Menelaus asked.

"First of all, only call me Master in front of other Jedi. You're free to call me sis when we're alone. As for what it's going to be... I don't know. I guess all that we can do is live, laugh, love, and serve the ways of the Force however we can. Are you ready?" Morgause asked her foster brother. Menelaus thought carefully on it for a moment, walking and thinking at the same time as his sister did.

"Ah kriff it, it'll make pop happy. Plus you're my sister, with our uncle, your aunt, and our parents dead, all we really have in the end is each other," Menelaus said, opening his decision with a joke to ease the tension. Morgause chuckled and placed a hand on his shoulder as they both walked down the hall of the Council to their destiny in the floors below.

"Menelaus, it might be premature of me to say this but something tells me the Force has some interesting plans for us both. You most especially with your power such as it is even at your young age," Morgause said. They traded no more words as they descended the elevator, due in part to other ears around them. When the shaft doors swung open, they stepped out to embrace their new purpose and new lives as Knight and Padawan.

 **A/N: Hey guys, thanks for sticking with me through this. I grant you that I have cut this one a little short but I felt like there was no more I could do without _really_ stretching the intrigue of this story and it'd help to have material to work with for a new series (if I return to these fan fictions). Now that this trilogy is complete, expect it to be a while before I am back as my priority will now become my paid original works when I write. Thanks for everything guys and see you next time I have a fling for fan fiction writing inspiration! You have been the best one could possibly ask for. **


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